


If You Will Go With Me

by exmanhater



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: spn_j2_bigbang, F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-14
Updated: 2011-06-14
Packaged: 2017-10-20 10:01:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/211555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exmanhater/pseuds/exmanhater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo Harvelle has always wanted more excitement and adventure in her life, but when she begins to have eerie visions and angelic visitations, she's not exactly sure how to be the big gun people keep expecting her to become. Figuring out how to balance Winchesters, angels and a demon with a grudge isn't easy, but she's never backed down from a challenge before, and she's not about to start now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Will Go With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2011 [SPN_J2_BigBang](http://spn-j2-bigbang.livejournal.com/). This is essentially a Jo-centric season five, and started out as a cracky little fic where Jo actually turns out to be the real "righteous man" and goes around with a bunch of angels with female vessels kicking apocalyptic ass. Obviously, it turned into much more than that, I hope in a successful way.
> 
> You can also find this story, along with the soundtrack, at [LJ](http://exlibrary.livejournal.com/5558.html), and please check out [Kansascshuffle's](http://kansascshuffle.livejournal.com/170595.html) awesome art, if you haven't already!

It ended with a huge bang that changed everything about the world as Jo knew it, which was in no way her fault, but try convincing her mom of that.

The real story started earlier, obviously, long before anyone thought it would get so bad. In September, Ellen and Jo were hunting together again, and they heard from Bobby that those "damn fool Winchesters" (her mom's words, not Jo's, though she couldn't say she'd disagree at this point) had kick-started the apocalypse. They got to see it first hand when War got loose and started making trouble.

Pretty much right after that, Jo began having these weird dreams. They started out fairly normal, for her anyway – she'd be digging up a corpse to salt and burn, or just realizing she was naked on top of the bar at the old Roadhouse. Then the scene would change, always to something different, a forest one time and a desert or a city the next, and a pale young woman would be pointing out some kind of scene or event. Once she showed Jo a bar fight and another time they watched a giant dog systematically eating an entire flock of seagulls. Jo hoped like hell that the seagull-eating was some kind of creepy symbolism, and not a literal event.

Most often the woman showed Jo what she knew must be demons, but the surroundings were never specific enough for her to figure out if she might be able to find them while she was awake and actually do some good. The one time she did recognize exactly what she was seeing, it was a replay of War inciting the paranoia she almost hadn't lived through. That made it clear that the dreams were apocalypse-related, but Jo was still trying her best to ignore that.

The woman never said anything and Jo couldn't seem to speak either, even though she tried often, and each dream ended when Jo woke up just as the woman started to walk close to her, an intent and slightly nerve-wracking look on her face. Jo had one of the dreams almost every night for a month. They left her pretty unsettled and she had to work hard to keep her mom from noticing the black circles under her eyes. She couldn't make any sense of the things she was shown, couldn't find any reason behind the dreams, and that bothered her more than the actual dreaming did.

She kept having strange feelings creep over her in different places in the waking world, too, like parks or supermarkets. It was a cross between someone watching her, and an awareness of something out of place, only noticeable in the corners of her perception, like she'd catch it if she could just move her head fast enough. She didn't tell anyone, which might have been stupid, but her mom had enough worry about her as it was, and Jo didn't want to give Ellen any extra reasons to try and talk her out of hunting.

As a result of all the new weirdness in her life, Jo wasn't as surprised as she might have been when this nice, mild-looking soccer mom type jabbed her fingers at Jo's forehead as she was paying the cashier at a gas station one afternoon, and she suddenly jerked and appeared inside what looked like an old nursing home or hospital. Jo had her gun out in about two seconds, but the entire round she emptied into the woman's chest didn't do anything and she didn't react when Jo yelled _christo_ , either. She just tutted and shook her head like she was someone's grandma and Jo was being a naughty kid.

"We don't have time for that, dear, I'm running late as it is." The woman stretched a little, cracking her back, and that's when Jo realized how oddly she moved, as if she didn't quite fit inside her body. If it was a demon, it was powerful enough that it hadn't flinched when Jo had tested it, which probably meant she was screwed anyway, so she stayed put.

The demon thing seemed satisfied that she wasn't going to run and started talking.

"Now here's the deal," it said, sounding like an alien trying to use slang for which it had no context. "I'm an angel of the lord. I know you know we exist, and you know I'm not a demon, so I expect you to take me at face value and listen up.

Jo listened, but it was more out of shock than belief.

"It's been clear for a while now," the angel-demon-thing said, "that the angels currently in charge of the Lucifer problem have let their judgment become clouded. They've lost sight of the heavenly purpose, and some have gotten stuck in the limitations and drives of their vessels."

Jo had no idea how to react – sure, the angels they'd heard about so far hadn't seemed like the peace and love types, or even the "won't kill you at the drop of a hat" types, except for the one that had rescued Dean when Lucifer rose, but Jo didn't have much hope that there were many like Castiel.

"What she means," drawled a new voice, and Jo jumped and turned to see a lanky, dark-skinned brunette lounging against the window in dirty jeans and a tank top, apparently not affected by the cool temperature. "Is that we've let those testosterone-laden fools handle things for far too long."

"Now, Lorael," admonished Soccer Mom. "The testosterone is not the real problem and you know it. You'll have to excuse her, Joanna, she's not used to acknowledging or expressing her emotions, yet."

Sounded like an old argument to Jo, and she tried to use the distraction to start edging nearer to the door so she'd be ready to run the second she got the chance. Soccer Mom didn't even blink, just waved her hand and the door disappeared. So much for that escape route. Lorael frowned at Jo.

"Don't you realize how serious this is?" she snarled. "We've been sending you visions for weeks now, preparing you!"

That brought Jo up short. "You're the ones sending me the wacked out dreams?" She stared kind of foolishly for a long moment. "Why?"

They shared a look and Soccer Mom took the conversation back under her control. "I know it's probably a shock, Joanna," she said calmly. "But we're going to stop the apocalypse, and we need your help. You're the right person for the job, and those visions were meant to give you an idea of what we're up against."

"Excuse me?" Jo started getting mad. These people actually expected her to fall for this shit? "I'm not particularly righteous, and definitely not a man, so unless you're telling me all that prophecy nonsense is wrong, I'm not an important figure in the apocalypse fight. How the hell do you know who I am, anyway? And don't call me Joanna; you're not my mother."

Soccer Mom sighed loudly. "I wish that prophecy had never seen the light of day," she complained. "Every time I try to recruit some help I have it thrown back in my face."

Lorael shook her head. "I told you we should have burned it a long time ago."

"Hey!" Jo yelled, her full courage returning when it looked like they might start arguing the point. "I need some damn answers, and I need them now. What makes you think I can stop the apocalypse?"

The two wom – angels shared another look and Lorael took over the exposition.

"The prophecy is just that – a prophecy. It's not set in stone, not entirely." She clenched her fists and slowly unfolded them, letting out a deep breath, making Jo wonder how long she'd been in her vessel to have picked up the habit of breathing, not to mention fist-clenching. "Interpreting words that were written down in one person's language and cultural context is a tricky thing, even for an angel. Just because someone writes the word "man" doesn't mean the person indicated is actually male, especially when it comes to biblical prophecy. And what gets put on the page is still just one version of the story, the one way out of many that the original vision could be interpreted."

"So you're saying it could be wrong?" Jo asked incredulously. "But Dean's already fulfilled half of it."

Soccer Mom shook her head. "Well, even if he is the "righteous man" who broke in hell, there's no guarantee that the rest of the prophecy also refers to him, or even that the person it refers to is the only one who can kill Lucifer."

"And more importantly," Lorael put in, "focusing on that one interpretation has blinded all of heaven to other options. Castiel is not the only angel to have doubts about Zachariah and heaven's current management, or the actual value in having heavenly peace on earth."

That had Jo sort of reeling. She wasn't cut out to handle a heavenly rebellion – this destiny stuff was Sam and Dean's deal, not hers, and to tell the truth, she didn't pay too much attention to the gossip Bobby gave to Ellen about the latest Winchester shenanigans unless it included a way for her to kick some demon ass. But if she could really help – and if these particular angels actually were telling the truth about not wanting to destroy humanity – she couldn't really afford to tell them to fuck off. If they'd even listen to her in the first place, which seemed unlikely.

"But why me?" Jo asked. "If it doesn't have to be Dean, why does it have to be me? Why not my mom, or you two, or someone else?"

Soccer Mom gave Lorael a look Jo couldn't decipher. "We're changing the rules," she said. "It doesn't _have_ to be anyone, but we believe you have the skills to do this."

"We're not trying to say that you have a destiny," Lorael added, hands in her pockets and looking as far from Jo's idea of angelic as Jo thought it was possible to get. "But that's kind of the point – you know the background of the apocalypse, and you're a hunter."

"Most importantly," Soccer Mom said, "you're not part of the plan, the one that Zachariah has created and manipulated almost all of heaven into following. We're going to alter the future, and it's going to require humans and angels working together."

"Okay," Jo said. "If I can stop the apocalypse, I want to. But you're gonna have to explain all this to my mom if you want to escape this whole thing without getting your wings burned off. She's pretty protective of me and if I go missing for much longer, you aren't going to get on her good side." Jo didn't mention that they'd probably already gotten on Ellen's bad side just by talking to Jo and making her late to meet Ellen at the site of their latest hunt.

Lorael looked amused, like an army of over-protective mothers wouldn't bother her. Jo smirked a little on the inside, because the angel had never met Ellen Harvelle. Soccer Mom looked more understanding, and she smiled (stiffly, like she'd never done it before) and nodded.

"Of course," she said. "Let's go explain it all now."

 

+++

 

"Do you mean to tell me," Ellen yelled, "that you expect my daughter to swan off with you who the hell knows where to stop the apocalypse because those damn fool Winchesters can't seal the deal?"

Jo huddled back against the far wall of the barn where they'd found Ellen (the poltergeist had turned out to be a rat with a nasty temper), trying to avoid her attention. After a nice round of shotgun fire and holy water dousing, she'd calmed enough to listen to Lorael and Sarakiel (Soccer Mom, as it turned out) make their case.

Then the yelling started again. The angels let her shout without trying to interrupt, which sort of impressed Jo. Not many people knew enough to just let Ellen get it out of her system.

"Joanna Beth Harvelle, are you even listening to me?" Oh, great. Jo was on the chopping block now.

"Mom, I know it sounds kind of strange, but if there's any way I can actually help stop this thing, don't you think I should?" Jo started out slow, letting her mom think she might be persuaded to listen to her opinion. She'd found it worked about twenty-five percent of the time.

"Not by your damn self!" Ellen replied fiercely. "Not without backup that isn't a bunch of out of touch angels!"

"Not all of us are as clueless as you seem to think, Ellen." The new voice was quiet compared to Ellen's, but it resonated, breaking through the noise and making itself the most compelling sound in the room. Jo thought she'd gotten used to new people popping up everywhere with the day she'd had, but she still jumped and turned, and then almost jumped again, because the woman who'd been appearing in her dreams stood at the entrance to the barn. Her red hair fell around her shoulders, and she tugged a strand behind her ear as she spoke again.

"None of us can afford to fight alone any longer."

Lorael stepped forward and gave the new angel the most solemn hug Jo had ever seen, which seemed pretty odd. Angelic hugging didn't strike her as all that likely a pastime, solemn or not.

"Anael, it's about time you got here," Lorael said, glancing at Ellen. "I cannot be held responsible for my actions if this woman does not stop screaming at me."

Okay, that was it. Jo could insult her mom, Bobby could insult her mom, and the list ended there. "If you really want my help, smiting my mom isn't gonna get you anywhere."

"Jo," the newcomer said, looking exactly like she had in Jo's dreams – visitations, apparently – down to the jeans and dusty black boots. "There won't be any smiting, but this is important."

"Yeah, the apocalypse, I get it," Jo retorted. "I just wish you guys had sent clearer visions – I still don't have any idea what you want me to do."

Anael shook her head. "I guess I should have known better," she said. "I remember what it's like to have dreams you don't understand."

"Anael," Ellen said, experimentally, like she was trying to remember something. "The angel Anna that Dean and Sam rescued last year? They didn't know what had happened to you."

"That's me," Anael said. "And lots of things happened, but I'm here now, and we've got work to do."

"If you're an angel again, why on earth do you need help from us?" Ellen asked, a look of disbelief on her face. "Just go figure it out the angel way."

All three angels exchanged glances. "We're watched," Lorael said eventually. "Anael has some freedom of movement because the angels no longer have the ability to track her, but Sarakiel and I are still connected to the Host."

Anael nodded. "Any use of angelic grace is visible to Heaven, if anyone there cares to look. If Sarakiel and Lorael are found out, here on earth with human bodies and defying orders, we'll lose our only insight into what the angels are planning."

Which made sense, as far as it went, but Jo was about ready to lose it. It had been a long day, it was getting longer by the second, and she could tell her mom wouldn't be so polite for much longer.

"Is there anything specific you need from me right now?" she asked the three angels.

Sarakiel glanced at Anael and then spoke. "No," she said hesitantly. "We need to know that you will work with us to stop this catastrophe, but there are no specific tasks for you right now."

"Okay," Jo said, trying to work out her next step. "Then why don't you guys figure out exactly what you need from me next, and then come and tell me once you know what that is?"

Anael nodded. "But first, there are a few things I should explain."

Ellen snorted. "Sure thing, honey, but we're moving to a safer and more comfortable location before the storytelling."

Lorael made a motion toward Ellen, but stopped herself when Jo glared at her.

Jo sighed, and made her way to the barn's entrance. "We'll see you at the motel," she said, as Ellen joined her, figuring that since the angels had been stalking her for the past however long it had been, they could find their own way just fine. "Don't be late."

Lorael frowned, but Anael smiled and Jo found herself feeling a little better about all of this. Maybe there _were_ some angels worth knowing.

 

+++

 

Jo twisted and turned that night, unable to sleep. Anna had said there would be no more dreams, but Jo remembered them too strongly to trust her subconscious not to create its own version with which to torment her.

Ellen slept soundly in the room's other double bed, and Jo wished she could wake her up to talk. She knew her mother wouldn't mind, but they had a long trip back home to the bar in the morning, and one of them would have to be awake enough to do the driving. It was always "the bar," even though it did have a name, because neither Ellen nor Jo could bring themselves to get too attached after losing the Roadhouse.

Jo sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. Now that some of the symbolism from her visions had been explained, they made more sense, and she went over it all again, trying to wrap her head around the new information. War had only been the first of the Horsemen to be released, and Anna believed the other three would follow soon. Sarakiel and Lorael were still working undercover in heaven to find out as much about the prophecy and all the related information as they could, but everything they'd learned so far indicated that stopping the rest of the Horsemen was the task they needed to focus on until a way to kill Lucifer became clear. Once the Horsemen were out in full force, Lucifer would have even more power and killing him would be next to impossible.

No one knew where the Horsemen were, of course, and that was the problem. Anna thought they were already on earth, as War had been, in hiding, and that was Jo's task now – watching for signs and trying to figure out where they were. Jo sighed. There were so many more possessions and other supernatural problems happening since Lucifer had risen that she and Ellen were already working harder than they had in years. Maybe splitting up was a good idea, although she had no idea how she'd convince her mother of that. Maybe they needed to start bringing in more hunters, team up with Sam and Dean – if they could convince other people to work with the Winchesters. At the very least, Jo would have to ask Ellen to start communicating with all the usual suspects, to get news from everywhere directly, instead of filtered through the news and other outlets run by people who didn't know anything about the supernatural parts of the world.

Things were going to change, though, no matter what and Jo felt a thrum of excitement running underneath her uncertainty. Maybe the circumstances weren't ideal, but she was finally getting an adventure.

The mix of anticipation and worry kept her up until dawn.

 

+++

 

Jo and Ellen made it back home without anything else strange happening, and a week went by, then two. Jo almost felt cheated when things continued on as they had before she'd started having angelic visions, but she could tell Ellen was relieved. Bored, and more restless than she could ever remember being, Jo researched constantly, looking for signs of the apocalypse, and then eventually for a hunt, any hunt, something that would get her out of the house and hopefully out of her head, too.

She finally found a case not too far away, and by that time Ellen was almost happy to send her off on her own. Jo could admit that when she wanted to be a brat, she really excelled at it, and she almost wouldn't have blamed her mom if Ellen had physically shoved her out of the house and into the car. Research was her least favorite part of the hunting gig, and it always had been. She didn't see the fun in going over details again and again when all she wanted was to accomplish something, save someone and kill a monster at the same time. She let her mind empty and relax during the drive, concentrating on the road and the music blaring from her crappy little speakers.

When she got to the address scrawled onto the paper containing her notes about the case, she pulled her attention back and focused on her surroundings, which didn't match the picture she'd had in her mind when she read about the problems the house had been reported to have. For one thing, it was clearly someone's home, with a cared-for yard and various toys scattered around on the porch. There weren't any cars in the driveway, or lights on in the house, but Jo still felt wary. Something was off – the house she'd come to investigate should have been old and unoccupied, continually on the market because of the problems anyone who purchased it soon had. There were several families who'd lived there with suspicious deaths in their histories, and this trip had been reconnaissance, to figure out exactly who the culprit was so she could put them to rest. She'd been suspecting a poltergeist or a really pissed off ghost, but she was fairly sure this was actually a trap, or above her pay grade, or possibly both.

That didn't stop her from getting out of the car to see exactly which option it was, though, and she ignored the voice in her head that sounded exactly like her mother, urging her to turn around and get back in the car.

Jo crept as quietly as she could to the edge of the property, hoping to slip into the back yard and approach the house itself from a less exposed angle. Her gun felt heavy in her hand and her instincts all said to run while she still could, but she was a hunter, goddamnit, and she wasn't going to leave until she knew what was going on. She made it to the back deck without encountering any trouble, and there still hadn't been any movement inside the house that she could see. Taking a deep but quiet breath, Jo crept up the wooden steps and around a large barbeque. She stopped when she reached a window, avoiding the glass sliding door that had been blocked off from the inside by what looked like a blanket, and crouched underneath the windowsill to plan her next move.

The voice, when it came, didn't really surprise her. She'd been hoping to at least make it inside the house before being noticed, but she'd known it would happen eventually.

"Well, well, well," it said, as Jo felt the tip of a knife hit the back of her neck. "Looks like my little idea worked."

Jo tried to turn her head, but the knife pushed threateningly against her skin.

"Ah ah," the voice said. "Drop the gun and push it away, then stand up slowly and walk over to the door. If you try and run, I'll slash your spinal cord in half."

Jo obeyed, walking calmly while she desperately tried to think of how to escape. She knew that if the demon, or whatever it was, got her inside the house, she'd have more trouble getting away. There was no telling how many accomplices her captor had, and now was the best time to make a run for it. She waited carefully until she was as close as she could get to the steps leading to freedom, then ducked her head and spun around, kicking out at the demon's legs. She felt the knife scrape her neck as the demon fell back, but it didn't draw blood, and as soon as she could, Jo ran down the steps and headed for her car.

She got about as far as the front driveway before the demon caught up and knocked her out cold.

When she woke up, her hands were tied behind her back, and her legs were securely fastened to the chair she sat on. Her eyes were uncovered, though, and she tried to take in as many details as she could. She was inside the house, the basement probably, given the low ceilings, and she could see a woman standing a few feet away, talking to a tall man who looked frustrated.

"I'm not going to tip them off by hurting their little friend before I have to," the woman said, and Jo recognized her voice – it was the demon that had captured her. "Let's keep them in the dark – " she paused and turned, then laughed. "Look who's awake."

"What the fuck do you want?" Jo asked, trying not to react to the taunting cast of the woman's voice.

"Jo, I'm so disappointed you're not happy to see me," the demon pouted. "I guess you're not used to seeing me in this body. I'll give you a hint – when we last met, I was wearing a Winchester. The tall one, to be precise."

"Doesn't matter," Jo bit out, having a flashback to Sam's mouth spitting out lies about her father. "Didn't catch your name back then, and I don't care anyway."

The demon frowned and started playing with the knife in her hand. "You can call me Meg," she said. "You'll remember it this time. I promise," and her teeth flashed in a grin while her eyes turned black.

Jo closed her own eyes and turned her head away. The panic was starting to rise up, and she knew she had to work fast to counter it. She focused on her hands, flexing her fingers to test the rope, and tried to think about anything other than demons and the apocalypse and her current predicament.

The demon, Meg, moved to her side and squatted in front of her, using one hand to tip Jo's face up, and when Jo still refused to open her eyes, the demon slapped her face viciously. Jo bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, and her eyes flew open, but she managed to keep from crying out.

"Look, princess," Meg said coldly. "You've been poking your nose into some places it doesn't belong, and I want to know why."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Jo said, trying to be cocky, but mostly just sounding mad.

Meg laughed. "Oh, that's so cute. You don't think demons know how to use the internet?" Standing, she moved back a little and cocked her head at Jo. "You've been looking pretty hard for signs of the apocalypse."

"I'm writing a paper for school," Jo said, and then regretted it when Meg slapped her again, this time with the handle of her knife. It left a sharp ache in her jaw, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She closed them tightly. She was not going to cry in front of this demon, not if she could help it. She heard a rustling noise, and when her eyes opened, Lorael was standing in front of her, mouth set in a grim line, reaching two fingers toward her forehead. Jo had time to hear Meg scream in frustration, and then she was in the back seat of her own car, sitting next to Anna.

"What," Jo gasped, her arms and legs tingling now that they were free from the rope. Anna frowned with concern.

"I'm truly sorry, Jo, I had no idea Meg would be looking for signs of a resistance already," Anna said. "We should have taken more precautions."

Jo just nodded, and then realized the car was moving. "It's okay – wait, who's driving?" Anna nodded to the front seat, and Jo followed her gaze to see Lorael sitting there calmly, not touching the steering wheel, even though the car was speeding down a highway.

Jo laughed, a hysterical sound that almost tipped her from relief back to panic as the adrenaline flooding her system screamed for action. Anna gave her the concerned face again, and Jo pulled it together.

"We didn't want to leave your car behind, seeing as you're so attached to it," Lorael said in a brisk, business-like tone. "Now that we're away, you can take over. I find driving very boring." She disappeared and the car came to a stop at the side of the road on its own.

Jo grimaced. "Thanks for the rescue," she said to the space where Lorael had been. She didn't know why Lorael always seemed so grumpy, but she wasn't going to make an issue of it, not when she'd just been saved from a potentially fatal situation.

"We're going to have to get started sooner then I'd been planning," Anna said, ignoring Lorael's exit. "I'll be in touch, hopefully in a day or two – can you drive home?"

Jo got out of the back seat and stretched, cracking her back and cataloging her aches and pains. Nothing she couldn't drive with for a little while. "Yeah, I'll be fine," she said. "Seriously, though, thank you."

Anna just stared at her for a moment with a rueful look in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said again, looking down. "I'm sorry you've been made a part of this. I've put some wards on your car, so you should be able to make it home safely."

"It's not your fault," Jo protested. "It sounded like Meg had been keeping an eye on me anyway, probably to make sure the Winchesters hadn't contacted me or my mom."

Anna sighed. "Either way, we're all going to have to be more careful."

Jo smiled. "No arguments here," she said. "Now get going, figure out the next move, and then let me know what it is, okay?"

Anna smiled back, and waited until Jo made it to the driver's seat before leaving in a rush of silent air. Jo drove back as quickly as she dared, feeling eyes on her back the whole way. She couldn't decide if being watched made her feel safer or not.

The next day, she had Bobby fax her the design for an anti-demonic possession tattoo and went to have it done right away. Things were heating up, and she couldn't afford to make any mistakes from here on out.

 

+++

 

Three days later, Anna and Lorael caught up with Jo on her way home from a simple salt-and-burn, one so easy that Ellen hadn't protested when she wanted to go alone. Jo knew it was only because she hadn't mentioned her near miss, but she didn't feel guilty about it. She was going to have to make sure Anna and Lorael didn't mention it, either. She'd needed something simple to get her over the fear of being captured again, held by a demon and made to feel helpless. She hated the slimy crawl of fear, of knowing she couldn't help herself, more than just about anything, and burning a vengeful ghost's bones had helped her more than she could say.

"Things are accelerating in heaven," Anna said as she appeared in Jo's rear-view mirror.

"Fucking christ!" Jo yelled, automatically reaching for the shotgun under the front passenger seat, and she was pretty sure that angelic interference was the only thing that kept them from running off the road. When she'd managed to calm down and concentrate on driving again, Lorael had joined Anna in the backseat.

Anna managed to look contrite. "I'm sorry, I should have remembered not to do that."

"No shit," Jo said, still a little breathless from panic. "Don't you guys have cell phones?"

"That’s not a bad idea," Anna mused, and Lorael frowned and elbowed Anna in the side.

"Zachariah is getting impatient," Lorael said. "We think it's time to start putting together a concrete plan. He won't be sitting still for much longer, and the Winchesters will be his first target, even with the sigils that hide them from angelic sight. Not to mention the demons and Lucifer."

"They won't be safe alone," Anna said, "and we could use their help to track down the Horsemen."

"Look," Jo said. "I can get in touch with the Winchesters, find out what's happening on their end of things. But I don't think they're going to believe me when I say that I've got my own angelic representatives telling me that everything they've been told for the past year was a lie."

Lorael frowned. "That's their problem, not ours. We don't really need them to finish this fight."

"We might," Jo retorted. "You've said it yourself – you have no idea how much of the prophecy is changeable and how much isn't, and realistically, subverting Zachariah's plan is going to take more than just us."

"I can convince them," Anna said, so quietly that Jo almost missed it. Lorael turned and stared curiously and Anna continued. "I can find Castiel."

Lorael kept staring at Anna, something like worry in her expression, looking more human than Jo had ever seen her before. Jo could tell she was missing something, but didn't really feel like she could ask. She'd already heard some of Anna's story as it pertained to the Winchesters, but Anna hadn't volunteered much more than that. Jo had the feeling that Lorael wasn't much for chit-chat or gossip, so she hadn't even tried talking to her.

"Okay," Jo replied instead. "That would probably help."

Anna shifted, as if she were preparing to stand. "I'll be back soon," she said, and disappeared.

Lorael shook her head, and then looked at Jo. "While she's gone, I should check in with Sarakiel."

Alone, Jo laughed at herself. It was still disconcerting when they did that popping in and out of thin air trick into regular rooms, much less her fucking car. She pulled over and called her mom to let her know she might be late getting back, then kept moving until she got tired. She could have made it home if she kept driving, but a motel room sounded like a better idea if her angelic guests returned, so she stopped two towns away from her destination and got a room. She paid with a fake credit card, one her mom didn't know about, and the faint tinge of guilt she usually had when she used it felt much weaker than it had the last time she'd done it.

She settled in with her laptop, using the wifi and some tricks she'd learned from Ash to access the few, carefully hidden discussion boards and help forums frequented by hunters, hoping to find mentions of anything that could be related to the Horsemen or Lucifer. Now that she knew Meg might be watching, she made sure to mask her trail as well as she could. Maybe she should have the laptop checked, too, just to make sure it wasn't tagged in some way.

She hadn't had any luck by the time Lorael found her there, and they both waited in silence. Jo had wished earlier for sweatpants and a cleaner top, but with Lorael standing in the room, she was grateful for her jeans and several shirt layers. Jo still felt as if she didn't quite know how to talk to Lorael, dramatic demon rescue or not, and Lorael seemed perfectly content to stare out the window. She still wore her jeans and tank top combo, but managed to make it look oddly formal. Her hair was much too long to be practical, and Jo found herself watching the dark strands that fell free and curled all the way down to Lorael's hips in something like envy. Her own hair was as long as she could get it, but she still had to keep it back most of the time if she wanted to be able to do anything. Jo suspected that Lorael's hair wouldn't dare shift out of place, and she wondered who Lorael was possessing, if her hair always behaved, too, and why she'd agreed to let an angel take control of her body.

When Anna returned, luckily just minutes later and finding Jo's motel room with no apparent difficulty, she was paler than usual. Lorael took one look at her, glared up at the ceiling for a second, and then started to speak.

"If he hurt you," she growled, and Anna looked up.

"No," she said. "Everything is fine. Castiel will talk to the Winchesters, and hopefully we'll all meet up later this week."

Lorael nodded and left abruptly, leaving Jo more confused than ever and seriously ready for some answers. She sat next to Anna on the edge of the bed and put on a firm expression.

"Okay, you really need to tell me what all of this is about. Why is talking to Castiel such a big deal? Isn't he one of the good angels?"

"He sold me out," Anna said. "Before he changed his mind and saved Dean, he got me re-captured by heaven."

"Oh," Jo said, not even knowing where to begin.

Anna laughed a tiny bit. "It's fine now, it really is. Sarakiel didn't let me stay in Zachariah's clutches for long, but Lorael is over-protective and impetuous and…" she broke off and laughed again.

"What's so funny?"

"I – I was wrong," Anna said, looking steadily at Jo even though her voice cracked on the words. "Wrong to think that I was the only one of us who felt, who wanted to feel. I told Castiel that he could never understand what it was like, but he and Lora and Sarakiel are proof that I was completely wrong."

"And it feels strange to call Lorael impetuous when she shouldn't be that at all," Jo said. Hell, she was still having trouble with the concept, and so far, she'd only met angels who did profess to have feelings, and something like free will.

Anna smiled. "Yes. Strange, but good – it makes this mission feel less lonely."

"Wait," Jo said. "Are you allowed to call her Lora?"

"Of course," Anna replied. "Aren't you?"

Jo shook her head, feeling a little strange about having asked the question at all. "I, uh, I haven't tried."

"You should," Anna said. "I don't think she'll mind. She's saved your life, formalities probably aren't necessary."

Jo shrugged. "Maybe." She didn't think Anna was right about that, but before she could argue, she thought of another question. "Why do you care?" she blurted out, not thinking of how it sounded until it was too late. She hurried to recover the conversation when Anna looked almost hurt.

"I – " Anna started to say, but Jo interrupted.

"I mean, how is it possible that there are angels who can feel?" she asked. "What about humanity makes you think we're worth saving? We've done some pretty fucked up things."

"No matter how badly humanity has acted in the past, you don't deserve annihilation," Anna replied. "And this situation, Lucifer and Michael and Zachariah – none of it is your fault. The angels made this mess, and we should clean it up."

"It still seems like an unpopular opinion for most angels to have," Jo said, watching Anna's rueful smile.

"I couldn't save my parents," Anna said after a moment. "My earthly ones, who raised me when I fell. They were killed by demons who were looking for me. My parents were good people – they didn't deserve to die like that."

"I'm sorry," Jo whispered, and Anna shrugged.

"I've made my peace with my life," she said. "But I want to make it possible for people like them to live on, and have families and futures and happiness, and keeping my other family from ruining the earth is the best way to do that. Even when I took back my grace, I still had my memories of being human, and that's something Zachariah can never take away from me."

Jo felt like the silence that followed was awkward, but she still didn't say anything to fill it. Anything she could say would just be inadequate. She did feel a little more connected to this whole crazy scheme of taking down the devil in a way she hadn't before. Even being tied up and yelled at by Meg hadn't brought things into such a clear picture. _Angels_ were defying the will of Heaven to do the right thing, and she couldn't just treat this like a chance to prove herself or have an adventure. This was more important than that, and the thought made her switch to tactics.

"We need to find Meg," Jo said. "If she's worried enough about the research I was doing on the apocalypse and the Horsemen to kidnap and interrogate me, she must know something."

"Agreed," Anna replied. "Lora and I looked for her, after we rescued you, but we found nothing. She must be using Enochian sigils of some kind to avoid detection. It was only luck that we found you before she was able to use them to keep you hidden from our sight."

"Is there any way to get around the sigils?"

Anna shook her head. "That's why they're so useful – angels are completely blocked by them. Depending on which ones she's using, I might be able to counter some, if I was prepared beforehand with the correct counter-sigils."

"And we don't necessarily know which ones she's using, so you wouldn't be prepared," Jo said, nodding with understanding. "But humans aren't affected by them, right?"

"Well, no, a human couldn't be banished by one, but you could be blocked from angelic sight or otherwise affected indirectly, and you can use them."

Now _that_ Jo found interesting. She stood up and pulled Anna from the bed.

"Can you teach me?" she asked. "Just the basics, nothing fancy."

Anna hesitated, and Jo met her gaze with pleading eyes.

"It's dangerous," Anna said slowly, "but I believe you're right. I'll teach you the basics."

Jo had always been a fast learner, and she picked up the design for a banishing sigil even more quickly than she'd been hoping, even if she didn't have to draw it in her own blood the way she would need to if she used it in a real situation. After Anna seemed satisfied at Jo's ability to draw the design with her eyes closed, left-handed and possibly tied up, she hesitated again, stumbling in the middle of a sentence.

"What?" Jo asked, looking up from the pile of used notebook paper surrounding her on the motel room floor. "Did I make a mistake that time?"

"No," Anna said, and then seemed to make up her mind about something. "There's a protective sigil I'd like to put on you, but it's dangerous, and I haven't ever used it on a human before. It would keep most sigils from affecting you," she paused and considered before going on. "Well, it's more that it makes you visible to angelic sight, even through a blocking shield, and there's another that might keep you safe from angelic power, but I think we should stick with the first one for now."

Jo nodded easily. "Okay, sure. Put it on me."

"It means you'll be visible to _all_ angels, not just me," Anna continued as if Jo hadn't spoken. "I don't believe any of the angels even have you on their radar except for Sarakiel, Lorael and I, but it is a risk to make you so vulnerable to angels just to protect you from demons."

"I think demons are the more immediate problem right now," Jo said. "I can always get rid of it later, right?"

"You can," Anna admitted. "But it would be very painful."

"I can handle it."

"Okay, if you're sure," Anna said. "This part is going to hurt," she warned, pulling a knife out of her back jeans pocket.

Jo shrugged. "I can handle it," she repeated, even as she winced inwardly. Anna took Jo's right hand and cut a straight, shallow line about an inch long across her palm, and added more shapes until the blood welled in her hand, forming a strange circle that almost filled her entire palm. Jo kept stoic, biting her lip against the sting of the cuts into her flesh. When Anna finished, she pressed her own hand against Jo's bloody one. She met Jo's eyes and said "it's going to be worse for a moment," and burning pressure surged against Jo's palm. Her legs trembled a little and she closed her eyes against the tears threatening to escape.

After what seemed like minutes, Anna lifted her hand away from Jo's, and the pain and the blood receded, leaving behind a series of scars forming the sigil on her palm.

"Is the scar permanent?" Jo asked, frowning, then blinked in surprise. She hadn't really thought she cared that much about scarring.

Anna nodded. "It's as permanent as I can make it. It should let me find you anywhere."

Jo grinned, flexing her hand. "Let's hope we don't have any reason to test it," she said.

 

+++

 

She hadn't planned to jinx herself, but when Meg caught up with her the next day, Jo cursed her own stupidity even as she hoped like hell that the sigil would work. Anna was supposed to meet up with her at the bar in just a little while, and if Jo didn't make it, surely they'd assume the worst. Her mother would, that was certain.

Jo was confused as much as she was angry; why on earth did Meg seem to think she was so important? None of her research had turned up anything useful so far, and she hadn't even talked to Sam or Dean since the incident with War. She'd been getting gas, almost ready to head back home after leaving the motel where she'd spent the night after Anna left. When she walked inside the little convenience store to pay, the doors had slammed shut and both of the clerks' eyes had flashed black. They came at her together, and she'd only just managed to get one good hit before she ran, trying to get some distance. Now she was crouched in the miscellaneous items aisle, which was luckily where the salt was stored.

Jo finished pouring the salt in a circle around her little barricade of soda boxes and cursed herself for leaving her gun in the car. The demons skidded up to her spot and the tall one scoffed at her salt line, but they didn't cross it, seemingly content to wait. They looked like teenagers, skinny and innocent, and Jo had a moment of guilt, sure that they had only been possessed because of her. But she couldn't do anything about that now, and she closed off her sympathy to deal with the situation.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked, hoping to goad them into spilling something. "You can't take one little girl?"

They didn't take the bait, standing preternaturally still and not even looking at her.

"Great," she sighed, resting her head in her hands, sitting cross-legged. "Guess we'll just wait for the boss."

"Oh, you missed me," said Meg from where she stood at the entrance to the aisle. "I'm so glad."

Jo stood quickly, and the two demons guarding her stepped back to let Meg come closer.

"Fuck you," Jo snapped, too upset to try playing it cool. She wanted to be done with this, with always being needing to be rescued. She should be able to take care of herself, but Meg kept proving her wrong about that.

"I don't think so," Meg said, rolling her eyes. "And you might want to be a bit nicer to me, seeing as I've got your mommy locked up in a basement."

"No you don't," Jo bit out, but her heart was racing with fear and anger, and she couldn't quite convince herself that Meg was lying.

"So here's how this is going to go," Meg said, without acknowledging Jo's words. "You're going to sit down like a good girl and answer some questions, and then maybe I'll let you see your mom."

Jo sat, hating herself a little for complying.

Meg smiled with vicious pleasure. "Good job. Now, why are angels trying to keep you away from me?"

"I don't know," Jo said firmly. "Why do you keep kidnapping me?"

"Oh, you know _something_ , princess, and don't think I won't get it out of you eventually, even if I have to pull your mother apart into dozens of tiny pieces." Meg glared at the two demons standing to either side of Jo. "Piss off until I call you back," she said, and they both walked to the store's entrance and stood just inside. Meg turned back to Jo.

"Well, the angels won't get you back this time – they can't even see this store at all, and they definitely can't get in." Meg crouched down and slid her knife up Jo's cheek, using it to push back the strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail to hang over her face. "Lucifer has a plan, and you aren't part of that plan, precious. You're new, and we don't like new players this late in the game. We've had this one mapped out from the start, and you don't fit in the bigger picture."

Jo's courage lifted a little, because who knew demons were that good at mixed metaphors, and she smiled. "Too bad," she said. "Sorry to cause so much trouble."

"Don't flatter yourself," Meg said. "You won't be any trouble."

Jo smirked at her, and used the hand she'd been sneaking closer and closer to Meg's legs to knock her over, snatching the knife. Meg lost her balance and fell, a shocked look on her face, and Jo didn't linger to enjoy it. She ran for the front door, but Meg grabbed her ankle and held on, stopping her in her tracks. The demons at the door didn't seem to either notice or care about what was happening, and Jo couldn't risk taking her gaze away from Meg to find out why. She used the handle of the knife to smash Meg's fingers from her leg, and then jumped back as Meg sprang to her feet with demonic speed.

"I've had enough of you," she growled, and lunged at Jo, who stepped aside and used Meg's momentum to slam her into the wall. The demon shook herself and stood up again, a trickle of blood on her temple.

"I think you have," a low voice said behind Jo, and she whirled to see Lorael standing there, her hair tied back and a long, silver sword in her hand. The sword seemed wildly out of place next to her casual jeans and grey t-shirt.

"What," Jo said helplessly, but then she saw Anna standing over the bodies of the now presumably demon-free convenience store clerks, grinning at her.

Meg looked at Lorael, then at her sword, and her mouth opened a second later, black smoke pouring out for what seemed like minutes. The body Meg had been possessing fell back, slumping lifeless to the floor.

"You did a good job holding her off," Lorael said to Jo, nodding with a more pleasant look on her face than Jo had seen before.

"Thank you," she stammered, and then slapped her hands on her thighs to get it together. "Do you – is my mom okay?"

"She's fine," Lorael said, turning to walk outside, motioning for Jo to follow. "I've been keeping an eye on her, and when Meg sent demons after her, we figured you were probably in danger, too. Anna found you quickly due to the sigil on your hand."

"It's lucky we did that."

Lorael stopped walking and looked directly at Jo. "Yes, it is," she said, "but your mother managed to fight off almost all the demons sent after her before I stepped in, and I can see that you would have done so as well. You are more than a match for them."

Jo stood, staring stunned at Lorael. "Thank you," she said again. Lorael pressed a hand to Jo's shoulder, a fleeting touch that felt heavier than it actually was, and then started walking again. Jo followed, and grabbed Anna's hand as she joined them at the entrance to the store. "Thank you," she told Anna, and then winced when she heard her mother's voice.

"Joanna Beth." Ellen stood in front of Jo's car, arms crossed, a calm and therefore dangerous expression on her face.

Jo looked at Lorael and Anna. "I'd better ride home with her, but we'll talk tonight, okay?"

Anna nodded gravely, and they both blinked out of sight.

Jo meekly tossed her mother the car keys, and Ellen drove in silence, her lips pressed tightly together. Jo curled into herself in the passenger seat, doing her to best to be quiet as well, and so neither of them said a word until they'd gotten home. Ellen waited for Jo to get all the way inside the bar, closing the door behind her, before she finally spoke.

"That's it, Joanna," she said. "You have to tell the angels that you're out of this."

"I can't," Jo protested. "Don't you understand? They need my help, and it's more important now than ever."

"I've been pretty understanding up until now," Ellen shot back. "You can't tell me you think this is still a good idea. Look at what almost happened to you!"

"The key word there is _almost_ , mom," Jo said as steadily as she could. "The fact that Meg is so determined to keep me out of this is a clear sign that this _is_ a good idea."

Ellen sat heavily, dropping her head onto her arms, elbows resting on the tabletop. "I never get to be selfish," she muttered, so quietly that Jo had to strain to make out the words.

Jo didn't know how to respond. It was true after all – Ellen had lost her husband, her home and her livelihood, all while fighting the same evil they faced now, and Jo couldn't blame her for not wanting her daughter to be caught up in it, too. But she couldn't step away now, either. She could feel it down in her bones, a certainty, loud and insistent, telling her that she had to see this through.

"I just," Jo started, then stopped. "I have to do this. I don't know what to say to make you understand, but I know this is the right thing to do. And I know I can do it. I _have_ to do it."

Ellen laughed darkly. "Right, maybe. That doesn't mean it won't kill you anyway."

Jo sat down next to her mother, and didn't protest when Ellen took her hand, pressing it between both of her own.

"I am so proud of you, of the person you've grown to be," Ellen whispered. Her eyes glittered, and Jo still hated to see her mother cry. "And I almost hate you at the same time. But that's pretty hypocritical of me, because I'd be saying and doing the same thing if I were you."

"I'm sorry it can't be easier," Jo said, her own eyes stinging.

"It's not really your fault," Ellen answered. "You're stubborn like your father."

Now _that_ made Jo laugh. "You mean I'm stubborn like _you_ ," she said, taking her hand out of Ellen's and poking her in the side.

"And like me," Ellen agreed. "You didn't have a chance."

Jo slumped over to lean on her mother's shoulder, feeling safe and grown-up and slightly off-kilter, like she didn't quite have a handle on what she was doing but was forging ahead anyway. Maybe that was what being responsible for yourself always felt like, no matter how long you'd been doing it.

"I could use some help," she admitted out loud, more to herself than to Ellen.

"Is it the kind of help I can provide?" Ellen asked.

"Maybe," Jo replied. "Do you know anyone who does magic and isn't evil?"

"That's a tough one. What do you need magic for?"

Jo sighed. "Well, I guess it doesn't have to be magic, but I want to know what Meg is up to, and she's hidden herself pretty well from the angels, but I thought she might not have thought to defend herself against a different kind of spying."

"I might know someone," Ellen said, and that was how Jo met Missouri Mosley.

When Jo and Ellen arrived in Lawrence the next day and knocked on Missouri's door, she answered, took one look at them, and shook her head.

"Another one?" she said cryptically. "My luck ran out a long time ago, I guess."

Ellen just smiled. "It's nice to see you, too, Missouri."

Missouri smiled back, and then stepped to the side and motioned for them to enter the house. "Well, come on in," she said, "and tell me all about the apocalypse."

 

+++

 

After Jo and Ellen got back from meeting with Missouri, they went straight to the empty bar where Ellen went to do paperwork, while Jo found a seat in a nice secluded corner, then sighed and slumped over in the booth. It wasn't anywhere near close enough to night for her to actually sleep, but she could feel weariness settling into her bones, making her feel older, which wasn't a good thing for once. Missouri wanted to help them, had said that she would try to figure out Meg's plans and whereabouts, but she hadn't been sure she could do anything.

Jo had just decided to get up and grab a beer when Lorael popped into the seat across from her, wearing an expression Jo had never seen on her face before. She still felt sort of awkward around Lorael, even though Lorael seemed to be trying to become her friend, or at least someone who didn't think she was completely worthless.

"What happened?" she asked, immediately nervous.

Lorael shifted in her seat, another strange look crossing her face. "It is… personal. I don't want to talk about it."

"Too late," Jo said cheerfully, her awkwardness suddenly disappearing. She was trying to do her best to relate to Lorael and Anna as women, as _people_ , so she should take every opportunity to enjoy the benefits of friendly teasing now that she was fairly sure Lorael wouldn't smite her for it. "You got me interested, so spill."

Lorael rolled her eyes, but unlike when Jo had first met her, she appeared amused by Jo's pushiness. "Always have to know everything, do you?"

Jo just waited, her need to rest gone.

"Fine," Lorael huffed. "Nosy little girl. It's this… this body."

Now that Jo hadn't expected. She mostly ignored that issue, trying to pretend the vessels didn't exist; she felt guilty about it, but she didn't want to think about the poor people who'd been removed from their lives to fight an angelic battle. She had to believe it was different from demonic possession, but that didn't seem like it would mean much to the actual people being possessed. "What about it? It's a vessel, isn't it?"

"No, well, only sort of," Lorael answered, clearly surprised. "I thought – didn't Anael tell you?"

"Obviously not." Jo waited for a moment. "Well, c'mon, what's the deal?"

"We – Sarakiel and I – made bodies to inhabit when we began this mission – Anael already owned hers because of her time as a human, and we used her as a template to make our own. Taking a vessel would have been too dangerous given the level of secrecy we must use, for us and for the human involved. It took some… unorthodox magic use, but compared to the rest of our rebellions, it seemed small."

Jo felt sucker-punched. "Really? That's – that's all you?" Her stomach flipped and she was suddenly aware of how beautiful Lorael was, as if knowing Lorael owned her body had changed it in some way. It was strange enough to make her almost lose the thread of their conversation – she couldn't ever remember thinking of a woman that way, of being so affected by a woman's attractiveness. She'd been doing her best to ignore the fact that Lorael even had a physical presence for so long, and maybe it was just the shock. It _had_ to be the shock.

"Yes, all me, in as much as a human body can be mine," Lorael shifted uncomfortably again, unaware of Jo's mental struggle. "We had to make the bodies as human as possible, and that apparently included… sensations. Physical ones." She wrinkled her face into a disapproving frown, as if her body had personally offended her, and Jo couldn't stop her laugh.

"It's all well and fine for you," Lorael complained. "You're used to having urges!"

"Wait – what kind of urges are we talking about here?" Jo giggled, trying to cover up the buzz of awareness that she couldn't ignore. Even she knew it would be inappropriate to hit on an _angel_. She didn't know if it was worse for her to do it to an angel currently inhabiting a female body, but she didn't want to find out either way.

Lorael winced. "I would really like a cheeseburger. With bacon."

Jo could handle that, no problem. "Okay then, let's get you a cheeseburger, hungry hungry hippo."

"I don't need to eat," Lorael protested. "I just want to."

"That's good enough for me," Jo smirked at her and stood up, waiting until Lorael joined her before heading back to the kitchen to start corrupting an angel with carbs. Anna showed up when they were halfway through the first round, and they hung around until the bar opened for the night and Ellen shooed them into the backroom.

It was a good night, and if Jo had to keep stopping herself from looking at Lorael with new eyes now that she knew Lorael was alone in her body, well, she didn't have admit it. It would go away, she was sure. She concentrated on their plans, trying to prepare for meeting with Sam and Dean the next morning, but Anna and Lorael seemed unable to focus on anything, jumping from topic to topic. Jo eventually gave up and just enjoyed herself. She might not be able to relax like this again for a long time.

 

+++

 

"What's taking so long?" Lorael said, pacing awkwardly from one end of the room to the other. It wasn't really a question, so Jo didn't bother answering. They'd been waiting for Anna to arrive with Sam, Dean and Castiel for over twenty minutes, and they both knew it probably meant that Anna was having trouble convincing them to let her teleport them in to a location they knew nothing about.

"I mean it," Lorael said. "If she's not back in five minutes, I'm going to go get her."

Jo smiled, quickly hiding it with her hand. She didn't want Lorael getting indignant, but she was, well, adorable when she got angry and impatient. "They'll be here soon," she said. It really didn't help her state of mind to be noticing the way Lorael's face flushed darker with feeling, her lips set in a firm line that Jo kind of wanted to taste. Jo blinked and did her best not to look like she'd just had impure thoughts about an angel.

Lorael just rolled her eyes. "Don't patronize me."

Before Jo could protest her innocence, Anna snapped into the room, one hand holding tightly to Sam Winchester's arm. Barely a second later, Castiel appeared with Dean in tow.

"Sorry we took so long," Anna said. "We almost got caught out by some of Zachariah's religious fanatics, and I didn't want to inadvertently lead them here."

"It's okay," Jo said, preemptively cutting off Lorael's sure-to-be curt reply. "Guys, this is Lorael – she's one of the angels going against Zachariah."

Sam and Dean both looked wary, and Jo couldn't really blame them. She did think it was kind of rude of Dean to turn to Castiel and ask if he knew Lorael, but Sam elbowed his brother and said hello politely.

Lorael didn't let anything show on her face, and it was unnerving to see nothing but the blank mask after so many days of being allowed to see beneath.

"Hello," she said, and turned to Castiel. "Brother, you've done a very brave thing."

Jo watched as they did the creepy angel staring thing, but afterward they both seemed to visibly relax.

"No braver than you," Castiel replied with a nod of his head, and at that, Dean finally relaxed a little, too.

Jo stifled a laugh. "Now that the incredibly solemn angelic greeting rituals are over, can we talk about the apocalypse?"

Dean winced. "Jo, are you sure Ellen isn't hiding somewhere waiting to castrate me if we let you go hunting?"

"What?" Jo shook her head, feeling like maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised to hear that old argument trotted out again. "Mom's been pretty supportive of this whole thing, and it doesn't really matter. I'm an adult, Dean."

"Yeah," Dean said, blustering ahead. "But Ellen is scary."

"You could get really hurt, Jo," Sam said, and Jo knew he didn't mean to be condescending, but that was definitely how it came out.

The memory of the first time she'd tried to hunt with the Winchesters, with Dean, welled up in her mind. Would they ever be able to look at her and see a grown-up human being, not just a young girl? All the doubts she had about the idea that she could do anything to stop Lucifer pressed into her, almost overwhelming, until she felt her inner stubborn bitch kick in. So what if Dean couldn't see past her tits? So what if Sam still felt guilty about that one time he'd been forced to tie her up and didn't want her "in harm's way"? Was Jo Harvelle the kind of woman who let other people boss her around? Anna and Lorael believed she had a part to play. More importantly, _she_ believed it too, and she knew how to handle the Winchesters. She snapped then, she had to admit it. But if she'd let either of them say another word, neither of them would be fit for being anyone's vessel by the time she'd finished with them.

"Hold it right there, Dean Winchester!" Jo had her mom's voice down perfectly. Dean and Sam both shut their mouths and stood up straight like they'd been called to attention, and she guessed that was her intent. Anna smiled encouragingly and Lorael had a spark of something in her eyes that Jo had never seen before. Respect, maybe. Castiel just switched his steady stare from Dean to Jo.

"What in hell makes you think you're in charge, here?" she asked them both.

Sam recovered from his shock. "Uhh, the entire populations of heaven and hell?" he said sarcastically.

Jo pointed to Anna and Lorael. "Not according to them."

Dean sneered. "Yeah, well, I wouldn't trust anything an angel tells you."

Jo just stared at Dean for a moment, then walked over next to Castiel, who didn't let anything he might've been feeling show on his face.

"What do you call this, Dean?" she asked. He looked down and then back up again defiantly.

"That's different," he protested. "Cas has saved both our lives multiple times. He's proven himself."

"And Anna and Lora have saved my life, and my mom's," Jo replied. "And if Anna can forgive Castiel for betraying her, and Castiel believes Anna's telling the truth, I don't see why you don't believe him if you trust him so much, even if you won't believe me." That got Dean's attention, for sure, and Jo could see the wheels turning in his head.

"I'm not saying we should all buddy up and make friendship bracelets," she continued, "but the whole idea behind this working together thing is that we're stronger that way. I don't need to be in charge, but neither do you. It's called teamwork."

Dean sighed and relaxed his stance. "Fine," he said, rubbing a hand at the back of his neck. "It makes sense, but I'm not convinced there's anything anyone can do to keep this from being all about me and Sam." He looked over at his brother. "Sam?"

Jo could see Sam struggling and sighed a little internally. He kept giving her that puppy-dog "I don't want you to get hurt" look.

"Look, you know what I'm going to do if you don't let me help, right?"

Dean and Sam shared an exasperated look, and the three of them chimed in together, although Jo's voice was decidedly more cheerful.

"Tag along behind anyway."

"And this time, I have my own angelic help," she added mercilessly.

Dean and Sam exchanged a meaningful look, and then Dean sighed and turned back to the others.

"We might have a lead on the Colt," he said. "There's a demon we know, and we're pretty sure he has it."

"How do you know that?" Jo asked, and Dean and Sam both shuddered.

Sam twitched repeatedly, ignoring the question, and Dean finally said. "Uh, Sam's number one fan found out and clued us in."

"Oh, right," said Anna. "The Winchester Gospels."

"The what of the who now?" Jo asked, looking from Dean to Sam and back to Dean again.

Dean shook his head. "Oh no, we are not talking about it. We know where the Colt might be, and if we can get it and use it, this whole thing will be over. Let's focus on that."

Jo wanted to keep pressing, because anything that had both Sam and Dean so spooked had to be good, but Anna nudged her and whispered, "I'll tell you later," so she let it go. When Dean outlined his plan to actually get the Colt, though, she thought about bringing it back up in retaliation.

"Why do I have to be the bait?" she complained. It was one thing to use her physical appearance as a ploy when _she_ was the one who planned it and benefitted, but it was entirely another to do it for Dean and Sam. And she was trying to do this whole apocalypse thing like a grown-up, like someone who wasn't pale and blonde and sort of tiny. She turned to Anna for support, but didn't get anything but a sheepish smile.

"You are the only one of us who can convincingly act like a young girl in need of help," Anna said. "I mean, can you imagine Lorael trying?"

"No," Lorael and Jo said at the same time, Jo with amusement and Lorael with firm refusal.

Anna laughed. "And anyway, Crowley would know we were angels immediately. This is one trick you will have to play on your own."

"Fine," Jo said. "But if I hear one comment about my ass I'm going to turn you all in to Zachariah myself."

 

+++

 

Once they had the Colt, and Jo had been forced to admit that the plan had been perfect (if kind of unnecessary, since Crowley had just given it up without a fight), Ellen and Jo left to get ready for the showdown. Ellen had decided to shut down the bar until things were finished. Jo tried to talk her into keeping it open and staying there, relatively safe, but Jo had definitely inherited more than half of her stubbornness from Ellen and she lost that argument. Luckily, Sarakiel had come to ask Ellen for assistance with finding hunters who would be willing to work with the few angels she'd been able to recruit, and Jo only ended up losing half the argument in the end. Ellen closed the bar and set up with Sarakiel in the back, and Jo left with Anna and Lorael to meet up with the Winchesters and Castiel.

Anna insisted on trying the protective sigil on Jo in the car, and made Lorael drive. Jo had to shut her eyes and avoid looking at the driver's seat, because the sight of Lorael driving without actually touching anything kept creeping her out. Anna distracted her by carving a sigil into Jo's forearm and cauterizing it.

"There," she said when she had finished. "Now we're as prepared for angelic attack as we possibly can be."

The town was silent and empty when they arrived, and it gave Jo the creeps. She kept close to Anna as they walked down the deserted main street, and nearly jumped out of her skin when Anna, Lorael and Castiel all froze at the same time.

"Reapers," Castiel said after a moment, sharing a worried look with Anna. "They're everywhere."

"Like, I'm stepping on one right now kind of everywhere?" Jo asked, turning her head to peer at what looked like a completely empty town to her.

"Not quite that bad," Anna said. Lorael ignored them all and walked a distance away, staring hard at various places in the air around her.

"Missouri said Meg was here," Jo said, "but she didn't say anything about reapers."

"Reapers mean death," Dean muttered. "Maybe death as in _Death_?"

"We should call Bobby," Sam said. "Maybe there's a reference to something involving reapers that's supposed to be a part of the apocalypse."

"Let me try to find out first," Castiel said. He didn't wait for approval, and when Jo turned to look, the space where he'd been standing next to Anna was empty.

"Great," Dean said. "I hate it when he does that."

Jo watched as Sam and Dean argued about calling Bobby, keeping Lorael in her peripheral vision. When Lorael started back to the group, Jo cut into the argument.

"Find anything?" she asked loudly, and Dean and Sam both stopped talking.

Lorael shook her head. "I cannot compel any of the reapers to speak with me, and I can only guess that they are here for Death in some capacity."

"I don't feel like standing out here in the open is a good idea," Anna said, a look of worry creased across her forehead. "Castiel should not have needed this long to investigate."

"That I can agree with," Dean said. "Let's get to a less obvious location and figure out what's going on."

By the time they reached the deserted general store and found the aisle with the salt, Sam had Bobby on the line. They waited, listening to Sam's part of the conversation, and when Sam hung up he looked grim.

"It is Death, according to Bobby. He said Lucifer has to give a sacrifice of some kind to get Death to rise."

"When?" Jo asked.

"Tonight, right now?" Sam replied. "Bobby wasn't sure. Either way, we should get there while we still can, and take care of Lucifer before Death rises. Bobby said it'll be at the cemetery."

Walking back outside, Jo felt her entire body vibrate as she reached the middle of the street. She jumped when Anna's hand closed down on her shoulder, and the vibration happened again, this time accompanied by a low growl.

Dean froze in front of Jo, and Sam stopped just next to him. Lorael and Anna pressed Jo into the Winchesters and tried to flank the three of them, which wasn't quite working because there were only two angels.

"What it is?" Jo asked, her back to Dean and Sam's, wildly looking around for whatever had made the noise. She couldn't see anything, and since the reapers hadn't tried anything like this earlier, she was guessing it wasn't them, which meant another invisible presence. She had her gun out anyway, feeling safer with the weight of it in her palm.

"Hellhounds," Lorael said. "Just stay close, and they won't get through."

"How many?" Dean asked, and Jo could feel the tension in his back, stiff against hers. "God, it's worse when I can't see them," he muttered under his breath.

"Enough," Anna said. "They won't leave until they've gotten what they came for, which I think we can assume is us."

"We have to stop Lucifer," Jo said. "Can we kill them? Can you see them?"

Lorael didn't turn to look at Jo as she replied. "We can…sense them. It isn't the same as seeing them, but they are wary enough of angels to be cautious. And they can be killed."

"Can't you just zap us all out of here?" Sam asked, but Anna was shaking her head before he'd finished his sentence.

"They have your scent, now. They won't necessarily be stopped by a change in location, even if it did manage to slow them down."

"Could you send Dean and Sam away to the cemetery, and keep me here for bait?" Jo asked.

"No," three sharp voices said in unison, and Jo glared at Sam, Dean and Lorael.

"It makes sense," she argued. "Lorael and Anna can take care of me, and we have to finish this."

"It's the best way," Anna agreed, setting her shoulders and pushing at Dean and Sam, who disappeared. "That way they can't argue," she finished, smiling tightly at Jo. Lorael had already drawn her sword and was attacking the air around her, and Jo assumed from the yelping that the hellhounds were her target. Anna tried to stay in front of Jo, but took out her own sword and began hacking at the air. If Jo hadn't been so fucking terrified, it would have been comical to watch the swords slicing at nothing, fierce expressions on both the angels' faces.

Jo kept her eyes on Lorael and Anna, unwilling to look away for a second in case she missed something important. When she felt the touch, low on her ankle, she jumped forward, yelling as a claw sliced through her skin.

"Jo!" Lorael jumped over something Jo couldn't see and pulled her up and away from the attempted bite, then shoved Jo behind her, slashing at the hellhound with her sword. Her voice was strained in a way Jo had never heard it sound before. Jo lost track of Anna, and reached down to touch her ankle, then fell heavily into a sitting position on the ground. The cut wasn't deep, thankfully, but it stung. Jo felt grateful for the pain; it grounded her in her body and she focused on pressing her hand around her ankle, on stopping the bleeding.

Anna came to stand next to her, helping Jo stand up a moment later.

"Is it over?" Jo asked, and Anna shook her head.

"Almost," she gestured toward Lorael and Jo followed her hand to look. "Lora is intent on destroying all of them."

Lorael grinned, her face lit up with excitement as she killed the last hellhound and turned to look right at Jo. Jo tried very hard to not get distracted, focusing on Lorael's ripped jeans instead of her face, because watching an angel kill a hellhound should _not_ be a turn-on, but it was kind of a lost cause. Anna finally smacked her hip to get her attention while Lorael did something to clean and put away her sword.

"Jo, are you okay?" Anna asked, her face concerned and tired.

Jo snapped out of it. "Yeah, fine," she muttered. "Let's get out of here."

Lorael nodded to Anna. "Find the Winchesters and make sure they're safe," she said. "I'll take Jo and meet you back at the bar."

Anna gave Jo's shoulder a squeeze and disappeared, leaving Jo and Lorael standing, staring at each other. Before Anna had even been gone thirty seconds, a new voice sounded from behind Jo. She whirled to see Meg standing on the other side of the street, her eyes furious.

"What did you _do_ to them?" Meg yelled. Lorael turned to Jo. "What is it?" she asked, and Jo started to panic.

"You can't see her?" she asked, as Meg started to walk towards them. "It's Meg, the demon from before, at the convenience store? I think she's mad that you killed the hellhounds."

Lorael stared right at Meg, clearly not seeing anything. Meg smirked.

"I'm wearing angel-block five thousand," she said. "No angels, no problems. Hell of a motto, huh?"

A small part of Jo cringed at the bad pun, but most of her energy was taken up with keeping Meg in her sight, pulling Lorael along with her as Meg came closer at a slow, easy pace.

"It doesn't matter how much angel-block you've got on," Jo shot back. "You think she needs to see you to kill you? She couldn't see the hellhounds either, and they're all gone."

"She can't sense me, either," Meg said, just as Lorael pulled her sword back out and took Jo's right hand in her left, keeping Jo slightly behind her. _Be my eyes_ , she said silently into Jo's mind. Jo thought back _yes_ as hard as she could, but had no idea if the sudden and kind of alarming telepathy went both ways or not. Lorael squeezed her hand and said _it does, and it is only temporary_ with an amused cast to her mental voice.

"I'm getting really tired of you, _Joanna_ , and all your big, bad angel friends," Meg drawled, her eyes turning black and a wicked-looking knife appearing in her hand. "I'm finishing this now."

"You always say that," Jo said, only half her attention on her words. "And it never works." She felt a pressure in her head, and she knew that Lorael would be striking soon. She tried to relax and not fight the presence of Lorael in her mind, but she didn't know if she was all that successful.

Meg raised her knife, and it grew exponentially bigger, until it more than matched the size of Lorael's weapon. She lunged, and Jo thought _to your right_ and felt Lorael's reassuring hand-squeeze. Lorael blocked the blow easily, and Meg frowned, suddenly noticing Jo's hand wrapped tightly in Lorael's.

 _You don't need to tell me what the demon is doing,_ Lorael said into Jo's mind. _I can see her through you_.

They fought for what Jo thought must have been a few minutes, even though it felt much longer as she scrambled to stay behind Lorael and keep their connection strong at the same time. Lorael only had human perception to guide her movements, and Jo could feel her frustration at not being able to gain the upper hand against a mere demon.

Finally, Meg made a mistake while she was trying to slice Jo's hand away from Lorael's, and Lora's sword caught her in the arm, knocking her knife away. Lorael raised their joined hands and Meg froze in midair, caught by angelic power.

 _Put your hand on her forehead_ , Lorael said. Jo obeyed cautiously, and by the time Meg realized what was happening, it was too late. Lorael placed her hand over Jo's, and Jo felt white-hot heat rush through her, burning Meg up where she stood.

When Meg's silhouette had completely disappeared, Lorael removed both their hands, separating them in the process, and Jo felt the presence in her mind leave carefully.

"You did well," Lorael said, and Jo startled just a tiny bit, hearing that voice outside of her head again. "We're fortunate that it worked without harming you."

"I guess," Jo replied with a rueful grin. "So much for not being the damsel in distress all the time."

"If all damsels did as much as you, the rescue business would definitely suffer," Lorael said firmly, her gaze making Jo flush.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about Meg anymore." Jo could feel her adrenaline draining away, but she didn't have time to think about her fatigue before Lorael put a hand on her shoulder, zapping them into place next to Jo's car and Dean's Impala. She let go of Jo and fiddled with her hair, tightening the ponytail without really seeming to physically re-do it.

"We can't leave Dean's car behind," Jo said, watching Lorael and searching for a safe topic of conversation as her inappropriate lust came slamming back. "He'd kill us if anything happened to it."

Lorael nodded. "I'll send both cars to Ellen's," she said, and reached out to take Jo's shoulder again. Jo pulled back.

"Wait, I just – " she stumbled over the words. "Thank you, again. I don't know why you keep saving my life, but – but I'm grateful."

Lorael lowered her head, and Jo thought she looked embarrassed, but it was hard to tell. "It's not difficult to want to save you," she said quietly. Jo raised a tentative hand and placed it on Lorael's shoulder, mirroring the only way Lorael had ever touched her before they'd spent an entire demon fight holding hands. Lorael looked up, her eyes guarded.

"I'm still grateful," Jo said, and then Lorael reached for her and the world dissolved around them as she teleported them both away.

 

+++

 

When they got back to the bar, Dean and Castiel were talking quietly in a corner while Sam stared blankly at nothing, ignoring the concerned looks Ellen kept giving him. Jo took one look at the tableau, and knew that Lucifer had somehow dodged the bullet, literally or figuratively.

"What happened?" she asked

"It didn't work," Dean said, his eyes empty of emotion. Lorael, Anna and Castiel seemed to be having a telepathic angel conversation, and Sam hadn't even looked up yet.

Ellen gave Jo a brief hug, her fingers digging into Jo's arms. "Go get some clean clothes," she said. "You're filthy."

Jo looked down at herself, and was almost surprised to see how disgusting her clothes had gotten. "Okay," she said obediently, and Ellen looked at her searchingly.

"I'm leaving to meet up with some hunters," Ellen said. "Call me if you need anything."

When Jo finished changing into something that wasn't covered in dirt and hellhound slobber, and had properly cleaned and bandaged the cut on her ankle, she went back downstairs for a full debriefing in the backroom of the bar. Lorael was gone, and Anna just shrugged when Jo asked where she was. It unsettled Jo to not have Lorael there, even though she was almost grateful for the chance to think about what Lorael had told her earlier without the distraction of Lorael's presence.

The future seemed pretty bleak. Dean was getting sort of hopeless, and Jo couldn't really blame him. The Colt had been their best hope, and now they were back to square one. Sam watched his brother carefully, and so did Castiel. Jo guessed they were all on Dean-suicide watch. Castiel himself wouldn't talk about what had happened while Lucifer had held him captive, just that Lucifer's vessel was dying and that he would be moving quickly now, to try and force Sam to accept him.

"That's it," Dean sighed into the silence. "That was the last hope, right? Our last chance to stop this thing without me and Sam becoming meatsuits, gone."

"Maybe – maybe it's not about a magic bullet or a foolproof spell at all," Jo swallowed, unsure of her words, but certain that she needed to speak. "Maybe it's about making do with what we have, what we already know. I mean, we're subverting destiny, right?"

Anna grinned, and Jo could tell she'd just been waiting for her to say exactly that.

"Think about it," Anna said eagerly. "We keep looking for something to save us, to give us a magic button to push and bam, it's all over. But it doesn't work like that, not really." She paused and gave Castiel a significant look. "We know that "God" doesn't wave a hand and fix everything."

Castiel nodded, his serious eyes lighting up just a fraction. "But God always gives us what we need to fix our own problems, according to the concept of free will, which, apparently, now also applies to angels."

Jo wasn't really sold on the God part of that, but she knew plenty about fixing (and _not_ fixing) her own problems. Dean and Sam seemed reluctant, too, but probably for different reasons. Dean kept looking at Anna and then at Castiel and then back to Anna, like he didn't know what to think, and Sam frowned.

"What do we have, though?" he asked. "A few angels, a few hunters, against Lucifer and the armies of hell _and_ heaven? That didn't work out so well last time."

That Jo could refute, so she did. "We have more than that, remember? Mom's been working with Sarakiel and some of her angels to get all the hunters in the US connected, so we can all be informed about what's going on in other places. Mom knows pretty much every hunting family in the Midwest, and almost everyone else has at least heard of her. The Roadhouse used to be research central."

"Lorael is working on recruiting more angels, too," added Anna. That was news to Jo, which Anna must have known. "She didn't want to tell you, Jo, she knew you wouldn't like it."

"Well she's just asking for someone to betray her to Zachariah," Jo mumbled. "Can't imagine why that would bother me."

"We need to know what Zachariah is planning," Castiel said firmly. "We know what Lucifer wants, and we just need to find a way to stop him. But Zachariah will have an elaborate plan by now, and if we want to avoid losing Dean to Michael, we need to be prepared."

Dean looked like he wanted to protest the possibility that he'd ever let Michael in, but he swallowed whatever he'd been planning to say when Sam gave him a _look_.

"Yes," Anna said, "and if he knows anything about Lucifer, about the Horsemen, we need to know that, too. The Horsemen will lead Lucifer's charge when he begins his main assault, and if we can incapacitate them first, we'll have a fighting chance. We've been so focused on Lucifer that we've forgotten about the other players."

Jo snorted. "A fighting chance for Lucifer to kill us instead." Anna frowned at her, and she continued. "I'm not saying it's not a good idea to try, but we do have to find a way to actually stop Lucifer."

"Stop him," Sam repeated, almost to himself. "We don't have to kill him, we just have to stop him. How did the angels trap him in the cage in the first place?"

Dean and Jo turned to the angels with questioning looks, but Anna just rolled her eyes and Castiel shook his head.

"Even if we had the power of Michael on our side, we couldn't repeat the act," he said. "It took thousands of angels working together to set the seals that kept the way into the cage shut. And only Michael and maybe the other archangels know how they locked the door itself in the first place."

"But there was something?" Sam asked. "Something they used to trap Lucifer before they set the seals?"

"We can look for it," Dean added. "While Lorael and Sarakiel are searching for information on the Horsemen in heaven, can't they keep an eye out for something we can use on Lucifer?"

"It's dangerous enough for them already," Jo protested. "We can't ask them to risk more, and if Zachariah finds out…"

Anna, staring into empty space, finally shook herself. "Let them make that decision, Jo," she said determinedly. "The angels, the ones who want to do what is right, we have to take responsibility for what our leaders have done. I've said that before, and Sam is right."

Castiel closed his eyes for a long moment, and Jo saw the emotions clearly played out in his usually impassive face.

"If we can, we must," he said, sharing a long look with Anna, who just nodded.

"We'll be back shortly," she said to Jo, and then she and Castiel disappeared.

"What the fuck?" Dean swung around as if he expected to find Castiel and Anna in a different part of the room. "I'm never going to get to used to that!"

"What did they even leave to do?" Sam asked.

"Cryptic angel bullshit," Jo muttered, and Dean laughed.

"It sounded like they knew something we didn't," Sam said, and then Jo started laughing, too.

"What else is new?" she said, and Sam reluctantly smiled.

"Well, come on," Dean said, ignoring them both. "We should go check in with Missouri and Bobby, maybe get them looking into the idea of trapping Lucifer instead of killing him."

After Dean spent five minutes on the phone arguing with Bobby about directions, they all piled into the Impala and began the journey to what Bobby said would be their new base of operations. Jo almost insisted on driving herself, but it did seem pretty silly to waste the gas when she knew Dean would never agree to leave his car behind. Instead, she climbed into the back seat of the Impala and tried her very best to not feel like a five-year-old on a road trip with her older brothers. It took three hours to get to their destination, which appeared to be a big lot of nothing in the middle of Kansas. Jo had almost gotten used to instantaneous angelic transportation, and the trip felt much longer than three hours to her.

When they finally reached a sign with the house number Bobby had given them, on the side of the dirt road they'd been on for the past few miles, Dean heaved a sigh of relief.

"Goddamn finally," he said, as he turned into what could have been referred to loosely as a driveway, and Jo swallowed a laugh at the concerned look on his face. "My poor baby's suspension will never be the same again."

"Do we even know what's out here?" Sam asked. "Is it like a house, or a barn or what?"

Dean just shrugged. "No idea, but it's Bobby, so…" he trailed off as they reached the end of the very long driveway, and an enormous house came into view. There were several outbuildings surrounding the main house, and it looked to Jo like an abandoned farm. When they made it inside and joined Bobby and Missouri in the huge kitchen, Jo gratefully took the cup of tea Missouri brewed for her.

"How'd you know about this place?" Dean asked, refusing the offer of tea and taking a beer from the well-stocked fridge instead. Jo almost asked for one, too, but decided to stick with tea. She needed warmth more than she needed a buzz.

Bobby rolled his eyes. "It's mine," he said, making it clear that he thought they were all stupid.

"All of it?" Sam's eyes were huge and round. "How come we've never seen it before?"

"You don't think I have back-up plans in case of anything?" Bobby said. "You don't know everything about me, boy, and don't think you ever will, either."

Jo laughed, and when she caught Missouri giving Bobby a longsuffering headshake, she laughed even harder, until Dean and Sam had reluctantly joined in.

"Come on," Jo said a moment later, blowing on her tea to keep herself from cracking up again. "Let's get to work and find a way to lock Lucifer up again."

Several hours later, Jo stopped herself from dozing off for the third time in the middle of reading one of Bobby's old books. "There's nothing here," she whined, and Dean gave her a commiserating smile.

Bobby just grunted and turned a page in his own book, ignoring them both. Missouri looked up from where she was sketching out patterns of some kind – Jo thought they might be Enochian sigils, and wondered where Missouri had learned them – and smiled a little.

"You were the one who wanted to research," she told Jo.

"Before I knew it was a waste of time," Jo said. "Now that I'm enlightened, can we go to bed? Or at least do something productive?"

"Would trapping Lucifer in hell forever be productive enough for you?"

Jo dropped her dusty book onto the floor. "Where did you go?" she asked Anna, who had just appeared in the middle of the room along with Castiel.

"Heaven," Castiel replied, and Dean glared at him.

"Why the fuck did you go to the one place where everyone who wants to kill you hangs out?"

Anna coughed, which Jo suspected was to cover up a laugh, and then grew serious. "Now's not the time to argue, Dean," she said. "We have it, we have the answer."

"What is it?" Jo asked, standing up and swiveling her head to look at Anna, then Castiel, and back again to Anna. She felt dizzy, the promise of a true way to end this making her head spin.

"It's the rings," Castiel said.

Anna looked smug. "I knew there was a reason I was so sure the Horsemen were the answer. The rings can open a portal to hell, and lock Lucifer inside again. We just have to get the rings from Pestilence, Famine and Death, and then get Lucifer into the trap."

"You do still have War's ring, don't you?" Castiel asked, turning to Dean and Sam.

"I've got it," Bobby offered. "It's locked up in the panic room, safe and sound."

"The panic room back at Singer Salvage?" Dean asked. "We should probably get it here with us just to be safe."

"The panic room here," Bobby said. "Why would I leave something like that behind?

Jo pulled Anna aside. "We should get my mom out here," she said. "Can you ask Lorael or Sarakiel to bring her?"

Anna nodded. "Consider it done."

Sarakiel and Lorael showed up an hour later, along with Ellen, who brought a huge duffle bag with her. Jo laughed when she saw it as she greeted them at the door to the main house.

"How much makeup do you have in there, mom?" she asked. Ellen gave her a serious glare and Jo reflexively swallowed and apologized like a good daughter, helping her mom carry the bag inside.

"We don't have time for this," Lorael said. She stretched out a hand and gave the air in front of her a twist, and the room dematerialized around Jo. When she opened her eyes a second later, she was standing in the panic room with Lorael, Sarakiel and her mom. Bobby, Anna, Castiel and the Winchesters appeared two seconds later. The three humans were in various states of shock, but Anna and Castiel didn't show any surprise. Jo wasn't used to it herself, really, but she just sat down on a rickety folding chair in the dimly lit room and waited for Lorael to explain.

"God fucking damnit," Dean said. "I fucking _hate_ it when you do that." He directed his anger at Castiel, who looked like he wanted to protest that it wasn't his fault, but Lorael wasn't going to wait for anyone.

"I'm going to find out where the Horsemen are, and then we can go and get the rings," she said emphatically.

"How?" Jo asked. "You can't risk your cover by asking that in heaven – Zachariah would know something was up right away."

"I'm not going to ask," Lorael said. "I'm just going to steal the information. Zachariah has been twisting the Word for centuries now, and he still has the original messages, the things he should have been letting go directly to the prophet. The answers we need will be there."

"Just sitting around unguarded?" Jo asked, and she could tell her sarcasm was a little too strong, but she couldn't find another way to keep the spike of worry pulsing in her mind under control.

"If it is guarded, I will have to fight," Lorael said. "I can do it."

"We can all go," Anna said. "All the angels together will be more than a match for whatever Zachariah can throw at us."

Sarakiel shook her head, and over her shoulder, Jo could see Dean and Sam having a wordless conversation, something along the lines of _let the angels argue it out, and then we'll talk some sense into them_. She hid a tiny grin. Not much chance of talking sense into these angels, even if she would rather Lorael not go alone.

"It can't be you or Castiel," Sarakiel said. "You've already become fugitives, and you'll be noticed before you can do anything useful, not to mention that you've already snuck into Heaven once today."

"And it can't be you," Lorael said to Sarakiel. "You'll be the only one of us who isn't on heaven's hit list if I get caught."

"That does make the most sense," Anna admitted.

Castiel looked depressed. "I doubt I even have enough power left to be useful," he said in a low growl. Dean looked worried, and Sam guilty, at that admission.

"You never said anything," Dean told Castiel. "Why didn't you tell me?" He looked about ready to start a real knockdown drag-out fight about it, so Jo cut in before he could really get going.

"If Lorael says she can go alone, then she can. The rest of us can decide how we're going to split up the Horsemen while she's gone."

"Tomorrow," Ellen said over the sound of Dean arguing. She glared at him. "We're going to sleep now, those of us who need it, and tomorrow we'll decide who takes what."

 

+++

 

Jo was helping Missouri put together hex bags when Anna came back the next afternoon. She'd left that morning after telling them that she'd take whichever Horsemen they wanted her to go after. The rest of them had argued for a while, but settled on teams eventually once Ellen and Sarakiel started threatening people. The rest of the morning Lorael had spent staring at various things in various rooms, which was apparently a form of meditation, and ignoring Jo until she said goodbye, and had disappeared before Jo could do anything but say good luck. Ellen tried to distract her with news from the hunting community, and who was coming to help out in the big fight, but Jo's mind was settled on worrying about Lorael, and she couldn't concentrate on anything else, which meant following Missouri's simple directions for hex bags was the first task.

Now Anna looked almost frantic, and Jo's low level worry for Lorael became huge and consuming.

"We've got to hurry," Anna said, pulling Jo up from her chair at the sturdy kitchen table. "It's Lora."

"What?" Jo asked. "What about Lora? Is she okay? She just left two hours ago."

Missouri peered at Anna, then stood briskly. "You'd better go, sugar," she told Jo, "and ask your questions on the way."

Jo closed her eyes and braced herself when Anna reached to touch her forehead with two fingers, and when she opened them again, she and Anna were standing alone in the middle of a deserted parking lot.

"Zachariah knows about Lora," Anna said, pacing up and down the length of one parking space. "An angel she tried to recruit sold her out, and now she's been taken for questioning. She managed to broadcast a message before they silenced her. I don't know if she had time to accomplish her mission."

"Where?" Jo asked, her entire being settling into brisk, cold efficiency. She couldn't afford to feel anything else.

"Zachariah is very predictable," Anna replied. "I believe I know where she'll be, but he'll have taken extra precautions, especially after the way I escaped."

"Can we get help? Call Sarakiel?"

"No, it's too risky," Anna said, shaking her head. "Now that Lora has been discovered, Sarakiel is our only link to heaven." She stopped pacing and looked directly at Jo. "We'll have to go alone, and we have to go now. Every second we wait is a second too long."

"Okay," Jo said. "I assume we're going to need blood."

Anna smiled faintly. "Blood is power," she said, and pushed the sleeve of her shirt up past her elbow. "We both need to have banishing sigils ready to go, on pieces of paper that we can leave behind."

"And those protective ones on our bodies," Jo finished with a sigh. She was vain enough to still wish she didn't have as many scars as she did, but there was no question that she would gladly give herself another one to save Lorael. "Will you be able to get us both to the place he's holding her, or will we have to fight our way in?"

"I think I can get us there," Anna said. "But you'll have to get Lora – I will need all of my strength to hold off Zachariah, and anyone else he may have with him. We'll place the banishing sigils outside and send any angels there away, but once we're inside, we'll have to physically reach Lorael and get away before Zachariah can call reinforcements or use a sigil of his own."

Jo reached into her pocket and pulled out an army knife, handing it to Anna. She grimaced, but didn't cry out as Anna carved a small sigil into the skin of her forearm, and spoke a short word that cauterized the bleeding and burned it into her flesh. Anna did the same thing to her own arm, and then made another cut on her other arm and used the blood to draw two different sigils onto pieces of paper she'd produced out of nowhere and handed the knife back to Jo.

"Right," Jo said, putting the knife away after making one last shallow cut on her hand. They'd need the fresh blood to make the banishment effective. "In, grab Lora, out, piece of cake." She didn't smile, and neither did Anna, but Jo relaxed slightly when Anna took her hand; the one that wasn't bleeding.

"We will do this," Anna said, giving her hand a squeeze. "Ready?"

Jo nodded and they left the parking lot and appeared in the back of what looked like the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, crouching behind a dumpster. Three angels stood outside the tiny back entrance, swords in hand. Anna handed Jo one of the sigils and motioned to her right, and Jo stood when Anna did, their movements perfectly in sync.

"The traitor," one of the angels said, brandishing his sword, but Jo wasn't listening. She whirled to the right side of the entrance and slammed her bleeding hand down on the sigil as she dropped the paper to the floor. Anna hit her own sigil at the same time, and all three angels vanished.

"Ha," Jo said in triumph, but Anna frowned at her.

"That was the easy part," she said, "and they won't be gone long. Come on." She walked to the door and painted several sigils before pressing her still-bloody hand to one of them and whispering a quiet word. The sigils flared brightly for a second, and Anna nodded, satisfied.

They pushed open the door slowly, revealing a darkly-lit room with cement everything. Lorael lay on the floor of the far side of the room, breathing hard and covered in bruises, trapped in a circle of fire. Jo knew she was only seeing a representation of Lorael's wounds, that she couldn't perceive the real damage, and that only made her angrier. Zachariah stood at a window that faced nothing as far as Jo could tell, and he looked over as soon as they entered the room.

"Didn't I tell you, Lorael?" he said with a gloating smile. "Of course your friends came for you, and now I have them, too."

Lorael made a spitting noise around the gag in her mouth, and Jo moved as slowly as possible towards her, in tiny shifts, trying to seem as if she wasn't moving at all. Anna walked confidently into the room and went for Zachariah, holding out her hand to stop him from moving.

"Anael, I may not be able to subdue you all by myself, but unless you want your little friend to stop breathing, you really should just leave right now."

"I'm not leaving without Lorael," Anna replied calmly, but the strain of holding him still was starting to show on her face.

Zachariah laughed, and moved his arm just enough to be able to snap his fingers, then frowned at Jo when nothing happened. "What did you do?" he asked Anna suspiciously.

She smiled. "You never did do very well with protective magics, did you? You were too busy trying to master warfare and diseases."

"I'll show you a disease," Zachariah bit out, freeing himself enough to fling a hand up and point it at Anna, and it was all Jo could do to ignore him. She crept slowly and steadily around the edge of the room, until she finally reached Lorael. Anna was trembling, locked in an invisible struggle with Zachariah, which turned out to be a good thing because it meant he wasn't paying attention to Jo at all as she broke the ring of fire and holy oil holding Lorael captive. Jo quickly undid Lorael's gag and the ropes holding her hands and legs together. Lorael stood shakily, keeping perfectly silent and leaning on Jo, and they moved slowly together towards Anna.

Zachariah stumbled back against the window he'd been looking out of earlier with a pained gasp, and Anna took a step closer, her hand raised and pushing at the air in front of him. Jo made it to her side, and Anna's concentration waivered as she took Lorael in her arms. Zachariah stood, free of Anna's power, and made a lunge toward them, but it was too late. Jo's last glimpse of Zachariah showed her his furious face, hand outstretched toward them, before Anna grabbed her arm and they vanished, reappearing in an unfamiliar motel room.

"We're safe," Anna said, still holding Lorael, as Jo stumbled around, trying to get her balance back. "We're near the farmhouse, but I thought we could use a quiet place to get cleaned up."

"I told you not to worry," Lorael said, as if her face weren't dirty and bruised, with a long line of blood streaking down her cheek.

Jo knew, she did, that Lorael was fine, that she would heal, that her body didn't accurately represent her power and strength. The knowledge didn't stop her from being frantic with worry, and she almost slapped Lorael when she grinned, carefree.

Anna set Lorael down on the couch, and helped her find a comfortable position, then swayed, and sat down herself.

"Are you okay?" Jo asked, suddenly anxious for both of them.

Anna laughed quietly. "Fine, I just need a moment. Zachariah is stupid, but he's also very strong."

Slightly mollified, Jo paced up and down the room, trying to control her thoughts and calm down enough to speak again.

"I got it," Lorael said, still smiling. "I found out where the Horsemen are here on earth."

Jo stopped pacing and stared at her.

"That's wonderful," Anna said. She looked at Jo, and then followed her gaze to Lorael, leaving heavily on the couch, still obviously in pain. "I'm well enough to fly now. I'm going to find the boys and tell them," she informed them. "Ellen, too – we'll need to start preparing."

Jo nodded absently as Anna stood and left the room, but never took her eyes from Lorael. "I guess you're real proud of yourself," she bit out, not even caring that she sounded exactly like her mother.

Lorael stopped smiling and really looked at Jo, then sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. "But it was the only way, and you know it."

Jo grimaced. "Doesn't mean I have to like it," she said, feeling herself relenting against her will.

"No," Lorael replied. "But you do understand it, and that's what matters. We have a chance now, the best chance we're going to get, and I was the best person for the job."

Jo nodded and walked to the bathroom without saying anything. She wet a washcloth in the sink and took it back to Lorael.

"I'll be strong enough to clean myself in just a moment," Lorael said, when she saw what Jo had done.

"Just indulge me," Jo said firmly. "Trust me, this is easier than the alternative."

Lorael tilted her head, giving Jo access to her neck, and Jo wiped up the blood gently.

"What's the alternative?" Lorael asked as Jo worked silently.

"Me sulking for a week and refusing to talk to you," Jo replied, reluctantly smiling. "I hear I'm a champion sulker. If you don't believe me, just ask my mom."

"I'll take your word for it," Lorael said, smiling back, and Jo finished cleaning Lorael's skin in silence, doing her best to ignore the warmth of Lorael's body and the depth of the fear she had felt when she'd thought Lorael had been lost for good.

This was no time for feeling like this – too much was at stake. Jo kept repeating it, but she still could feel the worry. More concerning, she could feel the warmth the worry came from in the first place. Every time Lorael glanced her way, her heart would twitch, and she couldn't ignore it any longer. _I'm not in love with an angel_ , she told herself firmly, hoping she'd convince herself if she kept repeating it. She focused on the other thought she couldn't get rid of, to distract herself. She settled down on the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest, locking her arms around her legs.

"Why is this worth it to you?" she asked in a hesitant voice, not looking at Lorael. "I know Anna said you all wanted to do the right thing, make up for what Zachariah has done wrong, but why are you risking your existence?"

Lorael sighed, and turned to look at a lamp across the room, obviously avoiding eye contact as much as Jo.

"During the last mission I was sent on, before Sarakiel and I found each other, I was ordered to kill a whole family," she said quietly. "They were one of the vessel bloodlines, and Zachariah wanted to control how many angelic vessels there were, but I didn't find that out until later. No one gave me a reason, they never did, and I didn't ask for one."

Jo kept her breathing steady, trying not to telegraph how tense she felt, waiting to find out if Lorael had done it, if she'd killed the family. Jo would forgive her, she realized, as the silence stretched out between them. She could forgive that, because she knew who Lorael was now, but the knowledge still made her feel a little guilty. The fact that Lorael had changed couldn't undo what she had done in the past.

"You don't have to tell me," Jo said, when it seemed as if Lorael wouldn't finish her story.

"No," Lorael replied with a sigh. "You should know this. I obeyed my orders, but the doubt had lodged itself firmly by then. The family had been no threat to anything that I could see; they weren't involved in any of the Seals or other angelic endeavors. When Sarakiel was assigned to me as a partner for my next mission, we slowly discovered that we were both questioning our superiors, and we decided to start finding out _why_ orders were given and if God was truly still in control of the angelic leaders. When Castiel was recalled to heaven, we realized that the prophet was being controlled by Zachariah and just how serious the situation was, and began working on a way to fight back."

Jo reached out and pressed her hand to Lorael's shoulder. "I'm glad you questioned it," she said. Lorael took Jo's hand and held it, awkwardly, as if she'd never done such a uniquely human thing before. Jo supposed that hand-holding during a fight didn't really count.

"I am, too," Lorael said softly, her hair falling forward to cover her face in shadows. Jo tightened her fingers around Lorael's, and they didn't move again until much later.

Jo dreamt that night with a clarity she hadn't had since Anna quit dream-walking in her head. She woke up earlier than usual, groggy and disoriented and fucking _confused_. When she made it downstairs to get coffee from the kitchen, Dean was sitting at the table with his own mug of caffeine, looking pretty much how Jo felt. She managed to pour the rest of the coffee into a mug and join him at the table without scalding herself.

"Can't sleep?" Dean asked, his voice rough and tired.

"Strange dreams," Jo replied, curling her fingers around the warm coffee mug in her hands.

Dean looked up sharply. "Like, a freaky dude in a robe and scythe following you around, strange?"

"Fuck," Jo said, losing all interest in her coffee. "Yeah, exactly that kind of strange. I can still feel his eyes staring at me from under the hood. You think it means something?"

"I was hoping it didn't," Dean sighed. "That's so fucking typical, isn't it? I argued all day that I should get to go after Death, and then I dream about death coming after me all night."

"I didn't argue about getting to go after Death," Jo said, and Dean's reply was lost in the noise of glass shattering on the floor. They both turned and jumped up when they saw Missouri standing at the entrance to the kitchen, a broken plate in pieces on the floor in front of her. Jo grabbed Missouri to push her out of the room gently, carefully avoiding the glass, while Dean started picking up the mess.

"Are you okay?" she asked Missouri as softly as she could, and Missouri shook herself and seemed to come back from wherever she'd been.

"I'm fine," she said, "but you and Dean have a rough day ahead of you."

"Rough?" Castiel came walking down the hallway and stared at Missouri. Dean had finished with the glass on the floor and stood at the entrance to the kitchen, leaning against the wall, and when Castiel showed up he came closer, moving to Missouri's other side.

"Rough," Missouri confirmed. "They've got to go meet with Death, alone."

"What?" Ellen's voice joined Dean's in the hallway and Jo groaned inwardly. "That isn't part of the plan."

Missouri remained perfectly calm, which Jo really appreciated. "They've each got a powerful compulsion laid on their souls," she told Ellen. "I don't know exactly where it came from, but it's got to be them, or Death won't talk, and we'll lose our chance."

"Talk?" Dean asked. "Don't get me wrong, I haven't figured out how to fucking _kill_ Death, but I don't think talking's on the agenda."

Missouri fixed him with a stern expression. "You'll get further with conversation in this case, Dean Winchester," she said. "So I suggest you practice your small talk."

 

+++

 

The drive to Chicago went faster than Jo had thought it might. If Dean hadn't been so happy to avoid angelic transport, she would have fought harder against Missouri's insistence that they go alone, with no supernatural help. When they got through Kansas City, and then Springfield, without encountering any traffic or state troopers, despite Dean driving at least twenty over the speed limit the entire time, Jo concluded that they were getting help from _someone_. She wasn't sure if it was an angel, or Death, or just plain dumb luck, but she was grateful for it anyway.

It had taken a while for Jo and Dean to get away from the farmhouse and all the protests against their solo mission. In the end, Missouri had written down all the info she'd seen about it and hustled them both out of the house and into the Impala, ignoring Ellen and everyone else. Jo wasn't exactly looking forward to what her mom would probably have to say when they got back, and she hadn't even been able to talk to Lorael before they left. Anna had pulled her in for a hug and a whispered "good luck," before leaving to prepare for her own mission.

When they reached the address Missouri had given them, Dean swore. "Fuck, this can't be it." He parked anyway, carefully away from the one or two other cars in the lot, which Jo found kind of obsessive in that (mostly) endearing way Dean had about him.

"Why is Death hanging around a strip mall?" Jo murmured, mostly to herself as they walked up to the stores.

Dean's voice sounded choked. "Uh, not just a strip mall – look at the store number Missouri wrote down."

" _Hot Topic_? What the hell?"

Jo swallowed uneasily. The entire mall was deserted, at least, which meant no one was around to witness them going in. Inside, the store looked exactly like a typical Hot Topic, and Jo suffered a flashback to ninth grade and begging her mom to let her wear black lipstick and hot pink miniskirts. Dean looked like he might be sick, which made Jo feel a little better. They both saw the door almost immediately, large and ornate in the back of the store, out of place with the space around it. When Jo opened it, they saw a huge, almost empty room.

Jo looked through the doorway warily, and when she didn't see anyone, stepped cautiously inside. Dean kept pace with her and they made their way to the table in the center of the space. Two chairs stood on one side of the table, while a more elaborate one was settled on the other side. It was a fairly clear sign, and after Dean and Jo had a silent conversation via facial expressions about it, they each sat in one of the simpler chairs.

Death, when it entered the room, made Jo laugh. She couldn't help it, and Death didn't seem offended, just twirled a little in the short black skirt and flipped a pigtail behind her shoulder as she sat down in her chair. Her hair was dark, and she was wearing a Hello Kitty t-shirt and elbow gloves. She put two different pairs of knee socks on the table in front of her.

"I can't decide if I should go purple or stay with classic black," Death said, wrinkling her nose.

"Wow," Dean managed to say, and Jo laughed again at the look on his face.

"Isn't that whole look a little cliché?" Jo asked, feeling brave, which was probably stupid, but this whole encounter was stupid, so what did she have to lose?

Death, wearing the body of what looked like a sixteen-year-old goth girl, looked at Jo then, and she suddenly felt the fear she should have had all along when those eyes fixed on hers, fathomless and ancient.

"I'm older than you can comprehend," Death said. "I like to appear young, every now and then." She nodded to herself decisively. "Purple. What's the point if I can't have fun with it?"

Dean and Jo didn't argue, because neither of them were quite stupid enough to pick a fight with Death, no matter what she happened to be wearing.

"You're moving much quicker than I'd hoped," Death said, setting the socks aside and assuming a serious manner that didn't seem as out of place with her appearance as it should have. "I had thought I might have to send the dreams more than once, but you picked up on my message right away."

"Glad to be of service," Dean replied, only half sarcastically, and Death grinned sharply at him.

"Well," Death said, "it is good to know that the saviors of humanity aren't entirely stupid. To get right to the point, Lucifer has overstepped his boundaries for the last time, and I want out, but I couldn't come to you, you had to come to me. My agreement with Lucifer is no longer useful or beneficial, but he's using loopholes to keep me trapped."

Jo shifted uneasily in her chair. She didn't say it, but she wondered on how earth Lucifer could be more powerful than _Death_.

Death looked at her and shrugged. "Lucifer wasn't always so annoying," she said, and great, Death could read minds. "I went along with his ideas for a while, to see where it would get me, but I'm bored now. Everything always ends with me, no matter what else happens beforehand.

"Anyway, I shouldn't be tethered to Lucifer's madness, so I freely give this ring to you. I assume you know what to do with it." Death held out her ring, heavy and dull in her palm, but when Dean stretched out his hand to take it, she held it just out of reach.

"There is a condition," she said, and Jo slumped in her seat. Of fucking course there was a condition.

"My firstborn?" Jo asked, and Dean laughed. Death frowned at her, and even though it shouldn't have been intimidating to have a tiny goth girl scowl at her, Jo flinched away at the look.

"A favor," Death said. "I can't say precisely when or what, but should I call on you in the future, I will expect you to come."

Jo and Dean exchanged glances, and Jo sighed. A vague future favor was better than immediate disaster, so she nodded her acceptance and Dean followed suit.

"Done." Death's voice rang out, deeper than her body alone could have produced, and Jo felt a shiver run down her spine at the word. Dean looked equally uncomfortable.

"Just to clarify," Dean said, when Death stood without saying anything else, "you're not going to kill everyone in town, right?"

Death smiled, her teeth gleaming against her black lipstick. "I suppose not," she answered. "You should leave before I change my mind. Once I've gotten a new outfit put together, I'm not going to have much to do for entertainment."

They left. Jo felt pretty sure that what had just happened was the kind of miracle or coincidence that only occurred once in a lifetime, and she didn't want to look too closely at the details for fear it would fall apart.

She did whine when Dean insisted that they had to go straight back. Eight hours in the Impala might be fun for Dean, but Jo was not looking forward to it.

When Jo and Dean finally made it back to the farmhouse after taking turns driving and napping, they were both dead on their feet (and getting Dean to let her drive – _that_ hadn't been fun). Everyone else had returned already, and Pestilence and Famine's rings were safely residing in one of Bobby's magically-fortified lockboxes. Ellen had hugged Jo tightly, her lips in a thin line, but her eyes proud. While Bobby and Sarakiel recounted what had happened with each Horseman, Jo listened with half an ear, only really noticing Sam's silence. Sarakiel seemed to be carefully choosing her words, and Jo knew that something must have gone wrong. But they'd all gotten back safely, Anna had told her that as soon as she'd walked through the door, so Jo couldn't bring herself to care about the details. They had the rings, and that was all that mattered.

Dean told their story, with Sam interrupting every few minutes to verify details, but Jo was too distracted looking for Lorael to really pay attention. By the time Dean was winding down his explanation, Lorael still hadn't gotten there, and Anna must have noticed how on edge Jo was, because she grabbed Jo's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"She'll be here, soon," she whispered, and then Lorael appeared in the doorway. Anna looked pleased with her own excellent timing, but Jo only saw Lorael and the way her eyes moved restlessly around the room until they found Jo. Lorael practically ran across the room and crushed Jo in a very uncomfortable and unexpected hug as soon as she saw where Jo was sitting.

"Don't ever do that again," she growled, and then let Jo go, who felt dazed, trying to decide if that had just happened. Lorael strode back across the room to the far wall.

"Now you know how it feels when people run off for dangerous missions all willy-nilly," Jo grumbled, very conscious of the fact that the whole room was staring at them, but Lorael ignored her.

"I don't want this," she said.

Jo blinked, still trying to clear her vision. "You don't want what? And hello, by the way."

"It's not the right time," Lorael replied quietly, coming back to Jo's side. "There is too much at stake and I can't make this decision now."

Jo started getting annoyed. She wasn't exactly at full strength, physically or mentally, her mother and Bobby and the goddamn Winchesters were listening to every word she and Lorael were saying, and she didn't have the stamina to handle cryptic angelic messages. She reached out and laid a hand on Lorael's shoulder, as much to steady herself as to get Lorael's attention.

"Please just tell me what you mean," she asked.

Lorael met Jo's gaze with her eyes and Jo sucked in a deep breath at the longing in them. "Oh," she said, desperately hoping she was the only one who could see Lorael's face. She hadn't really entertained the possibility that Lorael might feel something other than friendship for her, hadn't let her mind wander into what she assumed were unachievable fantasies. Seeing Lorael looking at her like that, like Jo was everything she wanted, almost took Jo's breath away.

"When this is over," Lorael said softly.

Jo nodded. "When this is over," she repeated. She might have tried for some clarification, or to get them into a different room for a private conversation, but her phone rang, the display flashing Missouri's name on the screen, and almost at the same time, Castiel blinked into the room next to Lorael. They both needed to hear the Death story, and Jo and Lorael were pulled apart for the rest of the day and night.

Jo kept the look she'd seen on Lorael's face close to her thoughts, even through the strategy sessions and unending phone calls and well-meaning lectures from her mother that night. It gave her the energy she needed to keep going, and every once in a while, Lorael would find a way to look at her and share a small, private smile. Jo couldn't help but feel as if they wouldn't actually be able to wait.

 

+++

 

Exhausted though she was, Jo slept restlessly, and woke up early. The day was spent talking to everyone imaginable about the different parts everyone would have to play, and it went by so quickly she couldn't even remember everything she'd done when she went to bed. The next morning, it seemed like the whole day would be more of the same, and Jo finally lost it in the late afternoon while arguing with Dean and Sam about something so stupid she couldn't even remember how it had started.

"Can we just fucking do this?" she yelled, loud enough for Bobby and Missouri to interrupt their conversation over in the corner and stare at her. "I mean it, we've got everything in place. Let's just have a final run-through, and do it tomorrow. We have to strike while Lucifer might still not know what we're up to."

Dean grinned at her, their disagreement forgotten on his end as well. "Hell, yes," he said. "Hang on, I'll grab everyone."

That turned out to take a long time, and when Ellen insisted that the humans eat before any planning happened, Jo almost despaired of ever getting started. Castiel, Anna and Lorael left for _important angel business_ , which Jo was pretty sure actually meant _deserting Jo in her hour of need to go have fun_. Eventually, though, the angels came back, and Missouri and Ellen herded everyone into the dining room, and once they all managed to fit around the long dining room table, Anna took charge.

"We know where and when this needs to happen," she said. "Now we just need to figure out the details of how."

"I think I have a solution for the rings," Missouri offered. "From what Sarakiel tells me, Lucifer will be able to tell the exact moment we spring the trap and he'll shut it again, and that won't work for us. But I think we'll be able to use a spell to mask the rings, and the opening to hell."

Sam looked intrigued. "How?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure most spells don't work on him."

Missouri smiled. "That's why we worked Enochian sigils into the standard masking spell. It's worked so far on every angel I've tried it with. As soon as I cast the spell, they're unable to sense the rings at all."

"We can eventually break through the spell, however," Sarakiel said. "It's taken an hour or so for most of us, but Lucifer will be much stronger. Once he realizes that something is being masked from him, he'll put everything he has into breaking it. And he has to be expecting us to try something like this."

"Faster, like, five minutes and we're toast faster?" Dean asked.

Sarakiel and Missouri shared a glance, and Missouri replied. "Yes, but the spell increases in power if more people are involved in the casting, and distance won't be much of a factor. If we have everyone who is capable cast and hold the spell at the same time, it will last longer."

"How many people?" Bobby asked, and Ellen snorted. Jo smiled, knowing exactly what her mom was thinking.

"As many as we know," Ellen said. "We can have every hunter in the US do it. At least half of them'll be willing to do that even if they couldn't or wouldn't come here to help in person."

"And Missouri knows lots of psychics," Jo said, looking at Missouri to make sure she wasn't presuming too much.

"Yes, I do," Missouri said. "And they're all on board."

"How much time can they give us?" Castiel asked.

"I hope an hour," replied Missouri. "But I can't do a test run of this, so I wouldn't count on more than twenty minutes."

Dean sighed. "Okay. Twenty minutes to lure Lucifer to the right place, open the trap, get him in, and get the hell out of dodge. We can do that."

"Yeah," Sam said slowly, and Jo could tell Dean wouldn't like whatever Sam was going to say. "I'm the bait, then, I guess."

"No fucking way," Dean retorted immediately, to absolutely no one's surprise.

Sam's forehead creased. "We need him to be there are exactly the right moment, Dean. He'll come if he thinks he has a chance to get me to say yes, even if he knows it's a trap."

"Winning doesn't include letting you become Lucifer's prom dress, Sammy," Dean growled.

Jo broke in before Sam could protest. "Sam is the bait, yeah, but he won't be the one setting the trap. You guys are the ones Lucifer will be after. If Sam puts on a good show, and gets Lucifer to the right spot, someone else can have the rings set up and ready to go, outside of anyone's notice."

Ellen smiled, a tinge of bitterness warring with pride in her eyes. "Are you the "someone else" in this scenario?"

"Yes," Jo said decisively, surprising herself. "I'm the best choice. I don't have any other important role to play, I can learn the spell to open the trap, and I'm small and easy to miss."

No one could contradict her logic, but Dean still made a token protest. "It should be me," he said. "I started this, I should finish it."

"We can't forget about Zachariah," Castiel put in then, glaring at Dean until he stopped grumbling. "He will be focused on you, Dean, and you won't be able to be as discreet as will be needed. Zachariah will also do his best to find an alternate vessel for Michael, and either way, he and the angels loyal to him will fight us, especially after they realize we plan to trap Lucifer instead of killing him."

"That's where I come in," Lorael said from her place across the table from Jo. "We have thirty angels now, who no longer believe Zachariah's lies and are able to fight without a borrowed human vessel. We'll keep him occupied – the chance to recapture the rebels will be one he can't pass up."

Dean grinned. "Man, I really wish I could watch that. He needs his ass kicked so badly."

Lorael grinned back, and Jo was sort of surprised at how similarly bloodthirsty their faces were. Mostly, however, she was only surprised at herself for not noticing that sooner. Apparently she had a type, and it had nothing to do with gender.

"What we need to do," Bobby said, "is get them fighting each other. There are gonna be a lot of demons for just our little group of hunters to take care of, but if some of the angels would fight them and not us, we'd probably do okay."

"The angels under Zachariah's control will kill demons, but they won't discriminate against anyone in their path," Sarakiel said. "All the human hunters should stay clear of the angels if possible, or make sure to have a demon in between them and any angels."

They all hashed over the details more times than Jo would have thought possible, until she was sitting slumped over in her chair, focusing on Lorael's passionate speeches more for the shape of her mouth as it moved than for what she said. Ellen finally called it quits for all of them at midnight when Bobby started literally growling instead of talking.

"Okay," Ellen said, her voice cutting through all the conversation. "Those of us who are still human need to get some sleep, and we all know what we're doing tomorrow. No point in talking it to death now."

The angels were all camped out in one of the out-buildings, and Anna and Lorael left together, smiling at Jo on their way out. Jo stood to make her way to her own small room, but Dean snagged her arm as she passed him in the doorway.

"What's wrong?" she asked, searching his face. He looked tired, but almost hopeful, something he hadn't seemed to be in a long time.

"Nothing," he said. "I just, uh, wanted to say that you – you've been doing a real good job with all of this, and I'm," he broke off and ran his hand over his face before continuing. "Fuck it, I'm sorry for treating you like a kid before."

"It's okay," Jo said softly, even though she sort of wanted to tease him for it. "I know it can be hard to see me as an adult."

"Well, people change," he said, looking over her shoulder at something in the hallway. "And that's not always a bad thing."

"Yeah, I guess," Jo said, feeling like she'd lost the thread of the conversation.

"Dean," Castiel's voice called from the hallway, and Dean gave Jo a quick smile.

"Goodnight," he said, and walked away. Jo shook her head and called good night back to him over her shoulder before heading for bed.

 

+++

 

Jo kept turning restlessly that night, until she was sure she wouldn't be able to sleep at all. When she snuck carefully outside onto the deck of the old farmhouse, she wasn't surprised to see Lorael standing at the far end, looking out over the empty fields beyond. She was surprised when Lorael turned, clear tear tracks on her face.

"What's wr – " Jo began, and then stopped as Lorael walked to her with quick, determined steps. She took Jo's face in her hands, and Jo couldn't do anything but stare, breath quickening and palms heavy at her sides.

"I don't want to wait," Lorael said, and kissed Jo with desperate ferocity. Jo could feel all her own pent up fear and desire and uncertainty welling up at the sensation, too much to push back down, and she kissed back as hard she could.

Lorael's arms wrapped around her body, one hand low on Jo's hip and the other rubbing almost frantically at her upper back. Jo had to tilt her face up to accommodate their embrace, and finally managed to move her own arms, using them to pull Lora even closer as they kissed. Her body couldn't process all of the things she was feeling and her brain felt fuzzy. Lora pushed her toward the nearest wall easily, and the reminder that Lora wasn't human, that the person kissing her could snap her neck with no effort, only made her want Lora even more.

Lora pulled back when she realized that they'd hit the side of the house. "I'm sorry," she murmured, in between pressing small, soft bites to Jo's neck. "I know I said I couldn't, but I keep thinking that you might not be here tomorrow night, and how short and temporary your whole life is next to mine, how I might not even be able to keep this body or survive myself, and I can't face it without knowing what you feel like, what you taste like."

Jo rolled her hips into Lora, barely hearing the words over the roaring in her head. She might have tried to argue about the supposed fragility of her human lifespan, but nothing seemed worth losing Lora's mouth on her body. Lora pushed her flannel shirt down her arms and let it fall to the ground, and it wasn't until Lora began to pull her tank top up that Jo remembered where they were.

"We can't do this here," she protested, not wanting to stop, but not really wanting to get any surprise visitors, either.

Lora paused in her attempt to get Jo naked and glanced around them, as if she'd forgotten where they were as well. Her face was flushed, her dark eyes hungry, and Jo wanted nothing more than to see exactly what Lora planned to do to her.

"Do you trust me?" Lora said, and what kind of question was that, Jo thought, as she replied "of course," and then the world twisted around her. When she could see again, she was standing in a nondescript hotel room, nicer than Jo usually stayed in, bland art on the walls, and more importantly, an empty, clean bed. Jo almost giggled at the ridiculousness of an angel breaking into a hotel room for sex.

Lora still held Jo tightly around her waist.

"Is this what you want?" she asked, running a hand lower and lower down Jo's back, skirting the waistband of her loose pajama pants.

"Fuck, yes," Jo panted, and pulled Lora with her to the bed, pausing only to finish pulling her tank top off, glad that she hadn't been wearing a bra. Lora watched as she tossed it onto a chair, and Jo flushed even harder as she stood in front of Lora almost naked, her nipples hard and her breath catching.

"Your turn," she managed to say, because this wasn't going to work unless Lora took off at least a few pieces of her clothing. Lora smiled, a dangerous glint in her eyes, and blinked once. Her shirt and jeans disappeared, along with the band that had been holding her hair back and any underwear she might have been wearing, and Jo sat down on the bed weakly, staring.

"That's a novel use for angelic powers," Jo said, and Lora laughed.

"It's my favorite one, now, I think," she said, and climbed onto the bed on her knees, pulling Jo up and kissing her again. It was even better now that Jo could feel the swell of Lora's bare breasts against her own, could reach down and rub her hand down Lora's angular hip, and then back up to her waist. She had worried, a little, that she wouldn't know what to do with a woman's body, but her fears had been pointless. Her body knew what to do, and she didn't resist the pull of her desire, just followed as it led her to kiss down Lora's neck to her breasts, relishing the moans that fell from Lora's throat as Jo lightly kissed one of her nipples.

Lora's eyes glittered at her in the dark, and she lay back against the pillows, pulling Jo with her.

"More," she gasped, and Jo wasn't going to stop any time soon. She could feel the heat coming from her cunt start to spread outward, and the slickness that came with it, and wondered if she should take off her bottoms before they were soaked. She ignored the thought to focus on Lora's nipples, tugging first one, then the other with her teeth, but Lora took care of it for her, pulling at her pants and getting them down around her ankles.

Jo settled her body between Lora's thighs, propped on one elbow with her other hand rubbing slow circles into one of Lora's nipples, and couldn't resist grinding her pelvis against Lora's, nothing between them but the thin cotton of her underwear. It was a good decision. Lora hissed and attacked Jo's neck with her teeth, hard and just enough, pushing up to match Jo's thrusts.

"Yes," she panted, "I want to feel you everywhere."

Jo couldn't speak, not for her life, but she obliged by shifting onto her side to the left of Lora's legs and moving her right hand down Lora's stomach to the damp curls at her crotch, and her own hips stuttered when she felt the heat emanating from Lora's cunt. Her finger dipped inside the wet folds and Jo's heart pounded in her ears in time with Lora's audible breathing. She kept her touch light and teasing, just trying to learn what Lora liked, until Lora growled and grabbed her hand, pushing her fingers to Lora's clit insistently.

"There," Lora moaned. "Touch me there, don't make me wait, please."

Jo had almost forgotten that this was new to Lora as well, that she hadn't had any kind of sex before. At least Jo knew what an orgasm would feel like, and that she would be able to have another one after the first.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against Lora's ear, shifting her left arm underneath Lora's shoulders to hold her close, and moving the fingers of her other hand in fast, rhythmic circles over Lora's clit. "Like that?"

"Yes," Lora managed, her hips pushing up into Jo's hand with such force that Jo almost couldn't keep her hold on Lora's shoulders, as her whole body shuddered and shook. Jo couldn't tell how long it took, too caught up in her own desire, but eventually Lora threw her head back and ground up into Jo's hand with graceless jerks as she came. Jo watched her face greedily, drinking in the whimpers and the short burst of "oh – oh – oh" from Lora's mouth as she slowly relaxed back into Jo's hold. Lora smiled, her eyes closed for a long moment as she recovered, and when she opened them to look up at Jo, they were huge and dark.

"What do you want?" Lora asked quietly, running her hand up and down Jo's neck, and Jo had no idea how to answer.

"What?" she managed, tilting her neck to give Lora's hand, and then her soft kisses, better access. Her whole body buzzed insistently with arousal, and she wasn't sure she could give voice to any of it articulately.

"What do you want me to do to you?" Lora repeated, and Jo flushed hot. "Do you want my mouth, my hands?"

"Whatever you want," Jo replied, suddenly nervous and unsure in the face of Lora's complete confidence. "Aren't you supposed to be new at this?"

Lora laughed, a low, husky sound. "I have been in existence for longer than you can imagine. What I don't know in practice, I can extrapolate from the theory."

Jo grinned. "Okay," she said, shifting to lie on her back and pulling Lora up to press against her side. She took Lora's hand and pressed it against her cunt, biting back a small moan. "Use your hands."

Lora stared intently at her own hand, moving swiftly to find Jo's clit, then shuddered with Jo when her finger pressed against it.

"Put a finger in me," Jo managed to say around her closed-up throat, and Lora kissed her hard and did as directed, one long finger pushing into Jo with a steady movement. Jo felt herself stretching around it and began moving her hips in tiny circles, almost involuntarily, as the pressure of arousal built inside of her. She was already so wet, and almost every movement of Lora's fingers sent another pulse of wet heat through her.

"Yes," she gasped, as Lora used her thumb to press against Jo's clit while she added another finger. Jo's head fell back and her thighs tensed, the pleasure she felt only enhanced by the stretch of Lora's fingers thrusting more and more quickly. Lora sat up without moving her hand and knelt in between Jo's spread legs, using her left hand to tug at Jo's nipples, alternating between both of them. Jo hardly had any time to prepare before it hit her, and she could feel herself clenching hard around Lora's fingers as she came, moaning and moving her hips with Lora's thrusts. She felt Lora still rubbing her clit, aftershocks mixing with the sweet pain of over-stimulation.

"Holy fucking hell," Jo managed, pulling Lora's hand away from her sticky thighs. Without thinking about it, she sucked Lora's wet fingers into her mouth, wanting to taste herself on Lora's hand.

"Oh," Lora said, a shocked, pleased expression on her face. Jo smirked up at her around the fingers, letting them slip almost all the way out. She slid her tongue around them, let Lora push into her mouth the way she'd pushed into her cunt, and then pulled them out, kissing the tips. Jo sat up, pushed Lora back onto the bed, and settled on her stomach, head between Lora's legs.

"So," she said, breathing in the sweet smell of Lora's cunt. "The best thing about having a clit is that you can go again pretty much right away." She looked up at Lora. "I've never done this, but I'm a quick learner, and I've been told I'm pretty good with my mouth."

Lora's hips pushed up, pressing her cunt into Jo's mouth insistently, and Jo went to work. Yeah, Jo thought, as her tongue teased Lora's clit, this having-sex-with-women thing was going to work out just fine.

"I have to tell you something," Lorael said, about two orgasms later, once they had managed to stop touching each other long enough to find a comfortable resting position with Jo curled carefully into Lorael's side, her head on Lorael's shoulder.

Jo tensed at the words, but Lorael smoothed a hand down her arm. "Nothing bad," she said. "At least, I don't think so."

"Then what?" Jo asked, pretty sure that an angel's definition of "not bad" and her own were probably light years apart.

Lorael sighed and pressed a kiss to Jo's hair. "Our bodies, the ones that the angels made for themselves, they – they cannot be kept after the final battle. It takes too much power to keep them as human as possible, without also limiting our abilities, and if we stay in them for much longer, Sarakiel doesn't know what will happen. The angels will have to return to heaven and give up some of the humanity we've gained in order to survive."

Jo froze. "This – wait, this was real, wasn't it?" She could feel Lorael's mouth form a frown against her head, and went on. "You wanted me, you didn't just – your body didn't make you do anything, did it?"

"Of course not," Lorael said. She used one hand to lift Jo's face until their eyes met. "I want you with all that I am, body and spirit. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that right now, I just… needed you to know everything."

"Then tell me everything," Jo replied, still not sure if she could relax, the warmth she felt at Lora's declaration not quite enough to assuage her paranoia. "What will happen to you?"

"I don't know," Lorael admitted. "I want to stay, if you'll have me, and if I do, I will probably fall, slowly, until I am nothing more than human. Assuming we win, and that Zachariah loses power in heaven."

"I can't ask you to do that," Jo whispered, her heart heavy.

"Then it's a good thing no one said you had to," Lorael snapped back. Her face was defiant, which made Jo ache with affection, but a hint of fear shone in her eyes as well. "It's what I want, Jo. I want to feel as much as I can, to have a body I can love you with, and if I have to be human for that, then so be it."

Jo raised her hand and pulled Lorael down to her mouth, kissing her with desperation. When they pulled apart, Lorael smiled brilliantly.

"Screw heaven," she said, and Jo laughed. "I don't want to go back. I was already cut off from the host anyway, when Zachariah discovered my disobedience. I made this choice a long time ago."

"I do," Jo whispered, overwhelmed with gratitude and worry and love, hiding her face in Lorael's neck. "I do, uh, love you. I want you to stay." Lorael wrapped an arm tightly around her back, and they didn't say anything further as they rested.

" _The earth trembled and the heavens dropped,_ " Lorael said into the silence sometime later, and Jo shivered.

"What does that mean?" she asked sleepily.

Lorael smiled, looking over Jo's shoulder at nothing Jo could see. "It's something I said once, a long, long time ago during a different battle. It means we're going to do it," she replied. "We'll succeed, and the world will be safe again."

Jo could almost believe it when Lora said it like that.

 

+++

 

When Jo crawled back into her tiny closet of a room, it was very late, or very early. Lorael had insisted that Jo needed to sleep, alone, and Jo had grumpily agreed to spend the night back at the farmhouse. Anna appeared in the doorway as Jo was just turning off the bedside light, and Jo jumped in surprise, nearly falling off the bed.

"Fuck," she whispered as loudly as she dared. "I thought everyone was still asleep."

Anna giggled, a sound which Jo still found slightly disconcerting when it came from an angel. "Angels don't sleep, you know that. So, Lora finally jumped you, huh?"

"Really?" Jo asked. "The world could end tomorrow, and you want to spend the night having girltalk?"

Anna shrugged and flopped down on the narrow bed with Jo. "What better time? We know what’s going to happen tomorrow, and there's nothing else we can do to prepare. We might as well have fun."

Jo couldn't really argue with that logic. "I guess," she said, tucking her legs under her chin.

Anna smiled widely. "It sounds like some of us already _had_ a little fun."

"Anna!"

"Did I ever tell you that Dean and I had sex once?"

"What?" Jo spluttered and almost choked on her own spit. "When?"

"It was _last night on earth_ sex," Anna replied. "Literally – I became an angel again the next day."

"Okay," Jo said. "That actually explains a lot about the way Dean acts around you. I don't think he's used to seeing his one night stands more than once."

Anna smiled. "It's pretty funny, isn't it?"

"You don't," Jo began, and then halted, unsure if she should continue.

"I don't what?" Anna asked.

"You don't, um, want him still?" Jo asked, wincing at how awkward she sounded.

Anna shook her head. "No. I may not be a robot angel, but I've been focusing on this battle for too long to have time for that kind of worry. I admire Dean, but we had our chance, and it's gone now."

Jo couldn't help it, she really couldn't. "So, how was it?"

Anna laughed, but then she actually answered, and that was how Jo ended up spending the night before the end of the world gossiping with an angel until she was too tired to keep her eyes open.

 

+++

 

When Jo finally made it outside in the morning, having quickly downed a piece of toast, Lorael and Anna were waiting for her in the long driveway. She would be driving them to the abandoned field they'd chosen as their battleground, and she wanted to get going as soon as possible. Missouri had left already with some of her psychic friends to find a safe-but-close location in which to set up their operation, and Ellen, Bobby and several other hunters were loading up their cars. Sam and Dean were arguing about something in front of the Impala as Castiel watched them with a slightly amused expression, which Jo was pretty sure he'd learned from Anna.

Anna smirked suggestively at Jo when she reached her car, and Lorael glared at Anna and pulled Jo into a surprisingly passionate kiss, considering it was seven am, and Jo's mother was watching. Jo went with it, though, unable to resist the pull of Lorael's lips as she relived flashes of the night before.

"Oh my god," Dean said loudly, distracting Jo from the kiss. "You're a lesbian now?"

"Shut up, Dean," Sam stage-whispered.

Lorael just kept holding Jo close, not kissing, but with their foreheads touching, and Jo found it easier than she would have thought to ignore their audience. It wasn't exactly the way she would have chosen to come out to her friends and family, but it sure beat sitting everyone down and having a fucking conversation about it.

"Don't tell me to shut up," Dean protested. "Lesbians!"

Jo laughed, and finally turned away from Lorael. "You're a pervert," she told Dean.

Dean just kept staring, until Ellen hit him on the back of the head.

"If you don't stop it," she warned, "you won't be _able_ to enjoy anything sex-related once I'm through with you."

Jo shook her head at Dean. "You do realize that angels don't technically have a gender?" she asked. "I guess that makes me more of an angel-sexual than a lesbian right now."

Dean blinked. "So? She's hot, you're hot, what else can I say?"

"I don't understand your prurient interest in two female bodies having sex," Lorael said.

"The answer's in the question," Dean muttered, ducking when Ellen went to hit him again.

"Stop over-compensating, Dean." Sam said with a sigh.

"Really?" Bobby said. "We're about to stop the apocalypse, and you're making gay jokes?"

Jo laughed, and even the thought that she might be about to die couldn't diminish her joy in that simple moment. She stuck her tongue out at Dean and pulled Lorael away to her car, and laughed again when Anna gave Dean a meaningful look and his face went red. She stopped when Ellen came over, and Lorael stepped back tactfully.

"You sure about this?" Ellen asked, her face warm and knowing and concerned. "And it's safe, for both of you?"

Jo smiled and hugged her mother tightly. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I'm sure."

 

+++

 

Jo clutched the rings in her pocket, unwilling to let go of them for fear she'd lose one. She didn't want the apocalypse to happen because she had a hole in her jeans. Ahead of her, placing themselves strategically in the empty field, Sam and Dean got ready to call down the angels and Lucifer. Lorael and Sarakiel were still masking their presence, wanting to keep themselves (and Bobby, Ellen, Missouri and the other human hunters) back until they were needed.

Anna and Castiel stood by Dean, Anna glaring defiantly at the sky and Castiel focused on Dean, both ready to fight as soon as Zachariah appeared.

Jo closed her eyes briefly, and went to stand closer to Sam, skin tingling as the masking spell covered the rings. She whispered the incantation for the portal over and over again under her breath, and Dean caught her eye and grinned when he saw it. Jo smiled back, a poor attempt of a smile, anyway, and nodded once. Sam touched her shoulder awkwardly, then closed his eyes to summon Lucifer while Dean muttered a less-than-holy prayer at Zachariah.

And then everything happened at once. Jo was peripherally aware of the angels arriving, could hear the shouts and clinks of metal that meant the fighting had started, but she focused completely on Sam, and then Lucifer, when he appeared.

Jo did her best to look frightened and unthreatening, which was easier than she would have hoped, since she was actually scared. Up close, Lucifer crackled with power and even her human eyes could sense it. He slid his gaze over her briefly, obviously dismissing her, which she wasn't going to get indignant about – this all hinged on her ability to seem innocuous. Lucifer never looked away from Sam once their eyes met, and the three of them stood almost frozen in the middle of the battlefield, a small pocket of quiet in the noise around them.

Jo counted down the minutes remaining in their safety net, and realized she needed to start opening the trap, but before she could try, Lucifer shot out a hand in her direction. A demon slammed into her, and the ensuing fight dragged her yards away from where she needed to be. A hunter she didn't know helped her exorcise the demon, and Jo smiled a tight thank you before turning and running as fast as she could toward Sam.

As Jo fought her way back, she checked her pocket for the rings again, and nearly panicked when it took her a second too long to close her fingers around them. She started murmuring the words of the spell as she ran, and when she reached the ground directly behind Lucifer, she threw the rings into place.

"Sam," she yelled, as the opening to hell swirled into being in front of her. He and Lucifer, still locked in their intense conversation/battle of wills, both turned to look at her. The spell must have still been in effect, because Lucifer just looked puzzled. Sam wiped a hand through the sweat on his forehead and lunged forward, pushing at Lucifer with all his strength. In that exact second, Jo felt a tingling run through her arms, and Lucifer put out one hand to stop Sam, holding him at an arms-length and staring right at the portal to hell. His eyes were still human-looking, but the rage in them had Jo stepping back a little.

"So it's come to this," Lucifer said calmly, belying the anger in his face as he picked up Sam by the neck. "Sam, I always wanted to believe that you were smarter than your brother, but I see that hope was in vain."

"Sam!" Jo screamed helplessly.

Sam grabbed uselessly at Lucifer's hands, and Jo overcame her shock and ran around the portal to try and help, even though she knew her strength would be useless. Lucifer didn't wait to find out what either of them could have achieved – he tossed Sam away, so far that Jo could barely see where he landed. Lucifer turned back to face the portal, which he could obviously now see.

"You thought this would fool me?" he asked, although Jo was pretty sure he wasn't speaking to her. He was still mostly ignoring her, as if she was so insignificant she wasn't worth the trouble of acknowledgment. She used his disdain to get closer to the portal, hoping to at least keep him from shutting it down.

"You're not as clever as you think, brother," said a clear voice, and Jo nearly fell over in relief as Anna appeared, sword in hand, forcing Lucifer to take a defensive position, caught between Anna and the portal.

Dean was yelling in the background, and Jo could see him racing toward them from where Sam had landed and was now miraculously sitting up with help from Ellen. Anna and Lucifer fought, swords clashing together with heavy thuds of metal and power. Jo watched, and kept one eye on the portal to make sure it stayed open, repeating the words of the spell over and over again. Lucifer seemed to grow taller, and his last lunge knocked Anna's sword away. She weaved in and out carefully, on the defensive, and managed to lure Lucifer closer to the portal. Jo caught her eye, and Anna winked, then lunged forward and hit Lucifer hard against the head. He took the hit, losing control for a second, and Jo spun without hesitation, kicking Lucifer in the back of his knees and knocking him to the edge of the precipice. She felt triumphant for one small moment, and then Lucifer ran Anna through with his sword, white light pouring from the wound. Jo froze, couldn't think, couldn't make her arms or legs work. She opened her mouth to yell for help as Lucifer moved his hand, reaching toward Anna with dark satisfaction in his eyes.

Dean finally reached them at the precise moment that Lucifer's hand fell on Anna's forehead, and Jo watched in horror as Anna burned up in front of her, the image of her wings flashing in the air before Lucifer's body obscured them as Dean pushed him into the hole opened by the rings. The portal closed, and the shadow of Anna's wings settled into the ground. Jo reached a hand to touch them before the image faded, and left her hand in the dirt long after it was gone.

Dean fell back, panting, and stared at Jo, saying something, probably trying to apologize for not getting there in time, but Jo couldn't hear him.

Lucifer was gone for good, and so was Anna.

 

+++

 

Jo didn't remember the details after that. She knew, somewhere in the part of her brain that dealt with crises and moved on to the next practical concern, that she had helped clean up the straggling demons left behind when Lucifer fell into the pit. She knew she hadn't faltered, hadn't cried or gone comatose the way she'd wanted to at first. She had said goodbye to Sarakiel, who left with most of the angels to escort the remainder of Zachariah's supporters back to heaven. Jo's next clear memory, though, wasn't of the aftermath of Anna's death or the many small but necessary tasks involved in getting all the wounded taken care of or falling into an exhausted heap when it was all finished, but of waking up in her bedroom above the bar the next morning. She had no idea how she had gotten there.

Sam knelt next to her folded-up body on the bed, shaking her shoulder gently.

"What, what's wrong?" she asked, sleepy and still sure that her nightmares hadn't been real. She seemed to recall Lorael being wrapped around her for most of the night, but it was a hazy thought she couldn't quite grasp now that she was awake.

"You need to eat," Sam said. "You haven't had anything since before – since yesterday, and Ellen will have all our heads if you pass out from hunger."

Jo sat up and pushed her hair behind her ears. "It all happened?"

Sam nodded, his forehead wrinkled in sympathy, and waited while she rummaged for a cleaner shirt in the battered duffle bag sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. He didn't speak again, and neither did she as they walked downstairs to the bar and joined the small group sitting around several tables pushed together in the middle of the room.

Jo remembered more of the previous night now, could recall saying goodbye to Missouri and other people as they headed back to their homes, eager to forget the bad parts and start spreading the story of the apocalypse they helped to prevent. She wished she could be so optimistic, and then she felt guilty when she immediately thought of Lorael, as if being grateful that she and Lorael had both survived was betraying Anna in some way.

Ellen stood when Jo and Sam reached the table, and tugged Jo down into a seat between her and Lorael. Sam collapsed next to Dean at the end of one long bench, resting his head in his arms on the table, and Castiel shared a worried look with Dean. Ellen pushed Jo into Lorael's arms, and then poured them all a shot of the good stuff, but no one moved to take a drink.

Bobby looked them all over after a moment and shook his head. "Alright," he said, raising his glass of whiskey. "To the fallen." He drank deeply, and slammed the glass down.

Dean snorted and grinned, a weak facsimile of his usual charm. "May the fucking devil rot in hell forever," he said, and drank his own shot.

Lorael raised her glass, her other hand clutching tightly to Jo's cold fingers. "May we honor the memory of those we lost," she said solemnly before tipping her glass and swallowing.

They all drank then, and even though she didn't say anything, Jo felt as if she'd just participated in a ceremony, something that would bind her to these people in the future as much as fighting alongside them had.

She shouldn't have let her guard down; she knew that, of course. But it felt as if the worst had come and gone in the days that followed Anna's death, and Jo had trained herself not to think about anything past defeating Lucifer, so she was almost completely unprepared when Lorael pulled her outside one afternoon a week later and broke the peace she'd precariously built up in her mind.

"I have to go," Lorael said, sounding apologetic but sure. Jo stared, temporarily speechless.

"Sarakiel needs my help," Lorael continued, reaching out a hand and then pulling it back when Jo flinched away. "Heaven is in disarray, Castiel is not returning – she faces an impossible task if she can't bring together the rebels with Zachariah's followers. A war, a civil war in heaven, it would be – it would be disastrous."

"Is that what you want?" Jo asked, doing her best to stay calm, frozen and aloof. She didn't succeed. "You want to go back to being a robot up there? You said you wouldn't go back even if they begged you!"

Lorael clutched at Jo's shoulders, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze. "Things will be different in heaven now. I hope there will be room for us all to acknowledge what we feel, but I will come back," she said. "I'm not giving up my body, and I will come back to you after I make sure that my brothers and sisters, those who do still want to be angels, will have a safe home."

"You promised to be with me," Jo protested weakly, hating herself for the smallness of her voice.

Lorael closed her eyes for a long moment, and then spoke. "I always thought Anael would be there to help," she said in a pained voice. "Without her, Sarakiel needs me."

Lorael opened her eyes and met Jo's gaze, sorrow and regret and sacrifice bleeding through her expression. Jo couldn't be selfish then, even though her heart sank and she didn't believe she would ever see Lorael again if she left now. How could Jo compare to a brand new heaven? She felt the loss of Anna all over again, and the vision of her future she'd been almost looking forward to crumbled into pieces in her mind.

"Right," she said out loud, and smiled shakily, closing her eyes to stop the tears. Lorael pressed soft lips against her temple and stepped back, and when Jo opened her eyes again, Lorael was gone.

Jo straightened her spine and walked back inside.

 

+++

 

After those long months full of mess-ups and problems, and things and feelings she'd never encountered before, it wasn't any surprise that Jo didn't have a clue about what to do next once it was over.

Sam was thinking about school again, and Dean was trying to talk him out of it (or at least have a say in where he went) while Castiel tried to talk Dean out of dissuading Sam, and Bobby told them all they were idiots who needed looking after in the worst way. They came by the bar often enough, since the newly revived hunter's network, and the fact that the hunting community mostly trusted them again, meant they could finally think about a home base instead of constantly being on the move. When they were around Jo felt a little better, if still mostly directionless.

She missed Anna more than she'd ever missed anyone before, and it kept her from thinking about the future in any real way. They'd known each other for less than a year, but she kept turning to catch Anna's eye and share a joke about Castiel's mostly-faked-now cluelessness or an eye-roll over something stupid Dean did or said, and every time Jo was so sure Anna would be looking back that when she wasn't it would hit her all over again. It didn't help that despite her last words to Jo, Lorael never showed up or sent word. Jo guessed that being home in heaven had felt more important than remembering a wild, half-baked promise to a mere mortal. She dreamt every night, and then wished she hadn't when she woke up reaching her arms out for Lorael or for Anna, she wasn't sure which, and never found anything but emptiness next to her on her bed.

Dean tried to cheer her up with well-meant jokes about wingmen and helping her find a new girl, which didn't help at all. Jo suspected they were also meant to be a way for Dean himself to avoid thinking about the fact that Anna had died for them all. Sam's outrage at Dean's audacity did help a little, though, even if the pity and understanding she saw in his eyes every time he looked at her made her want to scream. She also couldn't help but feel a little jealous of both Winchesters, ridiculous as it was, because Castiel had stayed, had chosen humanity even when he'd been offered a full angelic power-up from Sarakiel. It wasn't the same, not exactly, but it wasn't different enough to keep her from feeling it.

She helped her mom at the bar, to keep herself busy. Ellen put up with her pouting for a while, but soon enough, she started in on the motherly nudging. Jo sat in the backroom one night, a month after the end, messing around online and actually thinking about school or a real job. Ellen came in and sat next to her, pulling her into a one-armed hug, and it said a lot about her mental state that Jo let it happen without protest.

"I know you miss her," Ellen said softly, "and Lora, too. But maybe it's time you stopped mooching off your old mom and did something to make yourself happy."

Jo smiled faintly. "I know, I'm just kinda stuck trying to figure out what I want next." She didn't add that she mainly had trouble with that concept because she wanted Anna and Lorael there to tell her what they thought, but Ellen probably knew that anyway. Jo hadn't made a major decision without feedback or argument from at least one of them for a long while. If Lorael had stayed, they could have tried things, found their paths together. The prospect of doing it alone seemed pointless and daunting now that she'd had a taste of partnership.

Ellen pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Maybe you don't need to know exactly what you want," her mom said. "Maybe you just need to start experimenting and stop waiting on someone else to prod you along. You aren't the mellow kind anyway, it's not in your genes."

It was true – stubborn and independent was more her style than this aimlessness she'd been nursing. Easier didn't equal better, and it definitely wasn't as fun. Back to the basics, Jo thought to herself, imagining the look on Anna's face if she could have seen Jo being so introspective.

"No," she replied out loud. "No, I guess I'm not."

About a week later, Jo watched a gorgeous sunset from the wooden bench out behind the bar. She'd decided to move on in the morning, check in with Bobby, maybe see if Missouri had any need for her help. She wasn't sure of the specifics of this plan yet, but she figured if she started traveling she'd eventually find out where she was headed. Her mom was right, not that Jo would ever tell her that. It was time.

Sunk deep in her thoughts, she didn't notice her company until she heard her name, low and soft in a familiar voice.

"Jo."

It was Lorael.

Her throat constricted and her mouth felt too dry to form words, so she just stared at Lorael's familiar face, her hawk-like nose and smooth brown skin. She looked nervous and slightly defiant, her dark eyes wide and her mouth tight with tension, and that spark of her rebellious nature pushed Jo out of her stupor and made her forget why she should have been mad at Lorael's sudden appearance weeks after she'd said she would be back.

"This just a visit, or should I expect to see you around more often?" Jo asked slowly. "Because I need to know if – if you really do want this." Jo tried to put all of her uncertainty and her hope into the words.

"I'm back for good," Lorael said, her voice steady. "Heaven is on its way to repair, and if you'll have me, I won't leave again, not willingly."

Jo must have telegraphed something with her expression, because Lorael knelt and touched her cheek. "I promise," she whispered. "I don't know what will happen, if I will stay an angel or slowly fade, but I don't care, Jo, I don't."

"Okay," Jo managed, shocked to feel herself trembling. She reached for Lorael's face and drew her in, kissing her with all the hope she'd been trying to squash down for weeks.

Lorael kissed back, her hand never leaving Jo's cheek. She pulled away after a moment, though, and laughed, her face relaxing into a wide smile. "And here I thought I'd have to grovel for at least a week," she said, standing up and stepping back until she stood between Jo's knees, looking down. Jo felt a sharp pang of longing as she kept Lorael in her space and met her gaze.

Lorael's eyes turned serious again and she didn't blink as she spoke. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to come back – I meant every word I said before, but things were so hectic and Sarakiel needed help managing…" she trailed off, realizing from Jo's hopefully not _too_ besotted expression that her excuses weren't necessary.

Jo stared back steadily. "Sit down, then," she said. "We're planning my future."

Lorael reached out and ran a long-fingered hand through Jo's hair, then took Jo's hand in hers and sat down on the bench. Jo tightened her fingers around Lorael's and looked out at the brand new world she'd helped to create, and thought about how many choices she had, how amazing things could be.

It felt good. It felt like a beginning.

 

The end.


End file.
